World breaches 1.5°C temperature limit for first time

The EU’s climate service has announced that the global mean temperature for the past twelve months (Feb 2023 – Jan 2024) is the highest on record, at 1.52°C above the historical average. 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that this is the first time the critical 1.5C climate guardrail has been breached for a 12 month period. It was also the warmest January on record.  

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Just Transition Campaigner Rosie Hampton said: 

 “Politicians’ unwillingness to choose the safety of people over the profits of fossil fuel companies has brought us beyond this critical guardrail.  

“People have seen this crisis worsen with every fraction of a degree that temperature has increased so we know that it matters that we halt every single extra bit of warming that we can.  

“The Scottish Government should be pulling out all the stops to halt fossil fuel use and invest in a fast and fair transition to renewable energy, with workers and communities’ needs at its heart. The solutions to the climate emergency will improve people’s lives such as improved public transport, ensuring every home is warm and that we power our lives with renewable energy run in the public interest”