After June proved to be the 14th consecutive month of record heat for land and sea, analysts suggest that 2016 is well on the way to becoming the hottest year on record.
For the first six months of 2016, average global temperatures were 1.3C higher than the pre-industrial times of the late 19th century, according to Nasa.
The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have reached new highs, which have fuelled further global warming, the World Meteorological Organisation said.
“What we’ve seen for the first six months of 2016 is really quite alarming. We would have thought it would take several years to warm up like this. We don’t have as much time as we thought,” WMO’s director of climate research said.
“The heat has been especially pronounced in the Arctic, resulting in a very early onset of the annual melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic sea ice.”
The organisation’s secretary general pressed for the implementation of the Paris climate agreement and the shift to low carbon economies and renewable energy.
The Paris agreement saw some 200 governments agree in December to limit global warming to “well below” 2C higher than pre-industrial temperatures while striving for a ceiling of 1.5C. Temperatures, however, are already approaching that lower limit.
Although the recent El Niño, which brings drought, storms and floods, has now dissipated, more heat waves, extreme rainfall and the potential for stronger tropical cyclones are predicted by the WMO due to greenhouse gases creating climate change.
The 2015 El Niño contributed to the record temperatures in the first half of 2016 before disappearing in May, the WMO said.
