May 2024 was 11th consecutive hottest month on record, says EU climate service

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) says May 2024 was the hottest on record.

In a report published on Wednesday, the organisation said it was the 11th consecutive month of record temperatures exceeding the 1.5°C pre-industrial level.

C3S said the global average surface air temperature for the month stood at 0.65 °C above the 1991–2020 average.

Carlo Buontempo, the director of CS3, said a “cold” temperature can be achieved if we stabilise the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere”.

“We are living in unprecedented times, but we also have unprecedented skill in monitoring the climate, and this can help inform our actions,” Buontempo added.

“This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold, but if we manage to stabilise the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the very near future, we might be able to return to these “cold” temperatures by the end of the century.”