On November 17, a resident took a shower to cool down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Xinhua News Agency Picture

According to a report on the British "New Scientist" magazine website on the 20th, data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed that November 17 this year was the hottest day since climate records began, and the global average surface temperature was 2.06°C higher than pre-industrial levels. The temperature rise exceeded 2°C for the first time.

Sam Boggs of the Copernicus Climate Change Service wrote on Twitter that they estimate this is the first time global temperatures have been 2°C above 1850-1900 (or pre-industrial) levels. This situation shows that the earth's warming is accelerating due to rising greenhouse gas levels, but it does not mean that the earth has exceeded the 2°C limit of warming.

2023 is the hottest year on record. Many maximum temperature records around the world have been broken and more extreme weather has occurred. 2024 is likely to be hotter, in part because the climate has entered El Niño, a weather pattern that causes more ocean heat to be transferred into the atmosphere.

The climate goal set by the Paris Agreement is to limit the rise in global average temperatures to "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels" and to strive to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. However, the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that by the early 2030s, the global long-term average temperature rise is expected to not exceed 1.5°C. To prevent warming above 1.5°C, we need to limit future CO2 emissions to less than 220 billion tons, an almost impossible goal given that annual global emissions are about 40 billion tons and rising. . IPCC data shows that the world will warm by 2°C in the 2040s or 50s.