A plant sprouts between the cracked ground of La Vinuela reservoir during a severe drought in La Vinuela, near Malaga, southern Spain, Aug 8, 2022. BRUSSELS: Each of the past 12 months ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, the EU's climate change monitoring service said on Wednesday , as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for urgent action to avert"climate hell".
In a separate report, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said there is now an 80 per cent chance that at least one of the next five years will mark the first calendar year with an average temperature that temporarily exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - up from a 66 per cent chance last year.
With time running out to reverse course, Guterres urged a 30 per cent cut in global fossil fuel production and use by 2030. Coal, oil and gas still provide more than three-quarters of the world's energy, with global oil demand remaining strong. While last year registered as the warmest calendar year on record at 1.45 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, at least one of the next five years is likely to be even warmer than 2023, the WMO data show.