Climate change: The world is on a 12-month 'hot streak' as last month confirmed hottest May on record

The United Nations is calling for a “windfall” tax on fossil fuel company profits, after it was confirmed the world has experienced 12 record-breakingly hot months in a row.

The European Union’s climate change service, Copernicus, confirmed on Wednesday (5 June) that May 2024 was the warmest May ever recorded. The global average air temperature for the month was 0.65C above the 1991–2020 average, making it 1.52C above the 1850-1900 average, the pre-industrial reference period set in the Paris Agreement. Almost every country in the world signed this agreement in 2015, to try and limit the average global temperature rise to 1.5C above this level - or 2C at the very most.

April 2024 was also the warmest April on record, as were each of the 10 months before it, while 2023 as a whole was the hottest year in recorded history. But that may not be the case for very much longer. The latest EU data comes as the World Meteorological Organization and the UK´s Meteorological Office publish their latest Climate Prediction Update, which shows it is likely that at least one of the next five years will beat 2023’s record heat.

Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo, said it was “shocking but not surprising” that the world had reached this 12-month streak. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.

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

United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, also made a major climate statement on Wednesday. “For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat. Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don't seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilise, act and deliver,” he told Copernicus.

According to the Associated Press, Guterres has called for a “windfall” tax on the profits of fossil fuel companies to help pay for the fight against global warming, calling them the “godfathers of climate chaos”. Guterres said that global carbon dioxide emissions needed to fall 9% each year to 2030, for the 1.5C target to be kept alive.

The burning of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal is the main contributor to global warming caused by human activity. He called on advanced economies in the G20 countries - which includes the UK, the US, the EU, China, and Russia - to take the lead. “We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands.”

From within the UK, environmental activists say they were concerned about the apparent lack of leadership from major political parties on the issue - as the country races towards the 2024 General Election. In a statement, Friends of the Earth's head of policy, Mike Childs, said: “It's sadly no longer surprising to see reports of historic temperature highs, as May marks the 12th consecutive month of being the hottest on record. Alarm bells should be ringing, but our two main political parties are seemingly oblivious to the scale of disruption that further climate breakdown will bring.”

He called for the next government to take urgent action, because the UK was “veering dangerously off track” from meeting its national and international climate targets. “We need all political parties to promise investment in insulating homes, fitting heat pumps, improving public transport, building the green industries of the future and restoring nature.

“Right now, the government only spends a fraction of the £50 billion a year it raises on environmental taxes on green measures,” he added. “Investing more of this money on cutting harmful carbon emissions would not only boost the economy and improve living conditions, but also put the UK back on course for meeting its climate commitments.”