World breaches critical 1.5°C warming threshold 12 months in a row, and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week

Published Jul 17, 2024 · Updated Sep 10, 2024

A farm labourer drinks water during a break amid work on a paddy field on a hot summer day in Karnal in the northern state of Haryana, India.

The hotter the planet gets, the less people and ecosystems can adapt. Image: REUTERS/Bhawika Chhabra

Tom Crowfoot

Writer, Forum Stories

This weekly round-up contains the key nature and climate news from the past week.
Top nature and climate news: Temperatures 1.5°C above pre-industrial era average for 12 months; Renewables growth rate insufficient to reach 2030 target; Millions affected as floods sweep across South Asia.

1. The 1.5°C warming limit has been broken 12 months in a row

June 2024 was the 12th consecutive month of temperatures of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3).

"This is more than a statistical oddity and it highlights a large and continuing shift in our climate," said Carlo Buontempo, Director of the CS3.

A chart showing June global surface air temperature anomalies from 1980 to 2024.

No coincidence. Image: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF

The global average surface air temperature was 16.66°C, which is 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month and 0.14°C above the previous high set in June 2023, making it the hottest June ever recorded.

Other oddities highlighted by CS3 include:

The month was wetter than average over parts of North America, with a series of storms, including Hurricane Beryl.
Heavy precipitation led to floods in parts of Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.
Severe wildfires occurred in North Eastern Russia and central South America.
It was also drier than average over Ireland, most of the UK, Fennoscandia, southern Italy and much of Eastern Europe.

2. World not on track to reach 2030 renewables target, says IRENA

The current renewable energy growth rate is inadequate if the world is to triple capacity by 2030, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

This goal was set last year at a United Nations' COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, where nations committed to raising global renewable energy capacity to more than 11 terawatts.

"Renewable energy has been increasingly outperforming fossil fuels, but it is not the time to be complacent," said Francesco La Camera, director general of IRENA.

A graph showing how much more renewable energy capacity is needed to reach the 11.2 terrawatt commitment by 2030.

More needs to be done to reach the 11.2 terawatt global capacity goal. Image: IRENA

Last year, the world achieved an unprecedented 14% increase in renewables capacity. However, on this trajectory, the tripling target outlined by IRENA’s 1.5°C scenario will still fall 1.5 terawatts short, missing the target by 13.5%. This would rise to more than a third with the current global average increase of 10% per year.

Discover

How is the World Economic Forum fighting the climate crisis?

The Global Risks Report 2023 ranked failure to mitigate climate change as one of the most severe threats in the next two years, while climate- and nature- related risks lead the rankings by severity over the long term.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate is a multistakeholder platform that seeks to safeguard our global commons and drive systems transformation. It is accelerating action on climate change towards a net-zero, nature-positive future.

Learn more about our impact:

Scaling up green technologies: Through a partnership with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and over 65 global businesses, the First Movers Coalition has committed $12 billion in purchase commitments for green technologies to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry.
1 trillion trees: Over 90 global companies have committed to conserve, restore and grow more than 8 billion trees in 65 countries through the 1t.org initiative – which aims to achieve 1 trillion trees by 2030.
Sustainable food production: Our Food Action Alliance is engaging 40 partners who are working on 29 flagship initiatives to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe foods in ways that safeguard our planet. In Vietnam, it supported the upskilling of 2.2 million farmers and aims to provide 20 million farmers with the skills to learn and adapt to new agricultural standards.
Eliminating plastic pollution: Our Global Plastic Action Partnership is bringing together governments, businesses and civil society to shape a more sustainable world through the eradication of plastic pollution. In Ghana, more than 2,000 waste pickers are making an impact cleaning up beaches, drains and other sites.
Protecting the ocean: Our 2030 Water Resources Group has facilitated almost $1 billion to finance water-related programmes, growing into a network of more than 1,000 partners and operating in 14 countries/states.
Circular economy: Our SCALE 360 initiative is reducing the environmental impacts of value chains within the fashion, food, plastics and electronics industries, positively impacting over 100,000 people in 60 circular economy interventions globally.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us.

3. News in brief: Other top nature and climate stories this week

Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions are at their lowest level in 30 years, latest figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show. Despite this, the country is "still well off track" to meet EU and national 2030 targets, the EPA said.

The world's largest tropical wetland area – the Pantanal wetlands – experienced significant wildfire activity in June. More than 3,400 square kilometres of the Pantanal burned from 1 January to 9 June, the highest level in a record going back to 2012, according to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's satellite monitoring programme. Wildfire activity in Brazil typically peaks in August and September, so this is "cause for alarm" says Copernicus.

Hurricane Beryl, which hit Texas on 8 July was supercharged by "absolutely crazy" ocean temperatures, which are likely to exacerbate further storms in the coming months, The Guardian reports.

Wildfires across Greece are being contained by emergency services, with blazes near Athens, Chios and Kos causing many locals and tourists to evacuate.

For the first time, wind energy is providing more of North America's power than coal.

Wind generation finally overtakes coal power in the US.

Wind generation finally overtakes coal power. Image: Energy Information Administration

Floods sweeping through India, Nepal and Bangladesh have affected millions of people, resulting in large-scale rescue operations across the three nations, the BBC reports.

The Key Largo tree cactus has become Florida's first local species extinction caused by sea-level rise, according to a recent study.

South Africa's new energy minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has vowed to accelerate the nation's shift to renewable energy from coal, which breaks from his predecessor's stance who opposed a move away from coal power.

4. More on the nature and climate crisis on Agenda

Over 410 million people could be at risk from rising sea levels by 2100. Here's everything you need to know about this global threat.

The nature and climate crisis is affecting over half of people worldwide, and technology is crucial for managing resources and accelerating decarbonization. Check out how these three innovations can help.

Up to 60% of the over 1.2 billion population in Africa is not protected by early warning systems. Find out what needs to change if the continent is to build climate resilience.