First 12 months above 1.5C threshold. World just had warmest January on record. Climate change, El Nino drive up temperatures. Scientists urge swift action to cut emissions. The world just experienced its warmest January on record, marking the first 12-month period in which temperatures averaged more than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial times, the European Union's climate change monitoring service said Thursday.

2023 was already the warmest year on the planet in global records dating back to 1850, as human-caused climate change and El Nino, a weather pattern that warms surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, boosted temperatures.

"It is a significant milestone to see the global average temperature over a 12-month period exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures for the first time," said Matt Patterson, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oxford. (Reuters London, more at en.prothomalo.com)