Watch live as Joe Biden makes a statement on the climate crisis on Wednesday (26 July) as this July is set to be the world’s hottest month on record.
The US president will deliver remarks on action being taken to combat the climate crisis as millions of citizens suffer extreme heat conditions.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has declared that the era of global warming has ended and the era of “global boiling” has arrived.
“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels], and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action,” he added.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the provisional average temperature for the first 25 days of July is 16.95C, higher than the 16.63C figure for the same month in 2019.
Climate scientist Dr Karsten Haustein, who has conducted a separate analysis, was first to confirm the new record.
The Leipzig University researcher told a press briefing on Wednesday that July 2023 was also likely the warmest in 120,000 years, stretching back to the interglacial Eemian period when hardwood trees grew in the Arctic and hippos roamed as far north as the Rhine and Thames valleys.