Warmest January on record: Expert comments

Experts from the University of Reading have responded to the news that January 2024 was the warmest January on record, according to Copernicus. 

Professor Chris Merchant, Professor in Ocean and Earth Observation, said: “After the string of record-breaking months in 2023, it is no great surprise that January 2024 is another record-breaker for global temperature. A relatively strong El Nino is still in progress, which increases global temperatures a notch, and underlying this is the relentless rise of temperature as human activity adds more carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. Even so, 2023 stood out as even warmer than expected, and 2024 may well do likewise. Global warming rightly concerns many citizens and businesses all around the world, and they are moving away from fossil fuels. There is great progress in the transition to clean energy. But we need progress that is five times faster, and most political leaders still don’t seem to get what is at stake. We need them to wake up.”

Professor Richard Allan, Professor in Climate Science, said: “The last time Earth was as warm as today was a full 125 thousand years ago and temperatures are still rising, rapidly. A full 12 months has just been recorded as being 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial conditions. The Paris climate agreement sought to ensure the climate over a longer 20 or 30-year period is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and all of the evidence shows we are close to smashing through this barrier. But the fact remains that only with rapid, massive and sustained cuts in greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of society can we avoid the progressive worsening of extreme weather and sea level rise beyond progressively more dangerous warming levels."