0:00:00: Our planet has endured 11 straight months of a record-breaking heat. Now

0:00:05: that's according to the latest report by the EU's Copernicus climate service.

0:00:09: Last month was the hottest April since records began capping almost an entire

0:00:14: year of global temperature records. Worldwide average temperatures were

0:00:19: almost 0.7 degrees Celsius higher than the same period from 1990, excuse me,

0:00:26: from the period from 1991 to 2020. Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia and Africa

0:00:32: have been hit the hardest. The oceans also measured record temperatures in

0:00:37: April for the 13th month in a row. To help us understand the consequences of

0:00:46: this I'm joined now by Carlo Buontempo, the director of the EU's Copernicus

0:00:51: climate change service. Welcome to DW Mr. Buontempo, good to have you with us.

0:00:55: Now this is the 11th month in a row that has shattered all previous

0:00:59: temperature records. Are we looking at the new normal here? Is it going to get

0:01:04: worse? Can it be regulated? Can you help put it into perspective for us? Yes, it's

0:01:10: a very good question and in a sense I would like to say yes this is the new

0:01:13: normal because this would give us the feeling that this is a steady state.

0:01:18: Unfortunately that's not the case. We are moving towards a climate that is

0:01:23: already unprecedented. You were saying, stating the figure that appears in the

0:01:29: in the monthly bulletin today and the figure that appeared in the state of the

0:01:33: climate we released a couple of weeks ago and they described a climate that is

0:01:37: already fundamentally different from the climate in which we grew up, the climate

0:01:42: in which our civilization thrived. And this is not stopping here, it's

0:01:46: continuing because we have now built so much extra energy into the climate

0:01:49: system, to the ocean, to the atmosphere, but this is driving temperature up and

0:01:54: we are bound to see new records coming up. So this year is not yet certain

0:02:00: whether it will be a record-breaking year or not, but we have now already four

0:02:05: months in, we have four months of record-breaking months, so in a sense the

0:02:09: rest of the year will need to be extremely cold for 2024 not to become

0:02:15: yet another record-breaking month. And independently of what's happening in 2024, we're bound to see a new record in the next few years.

0:02:23: I see. Now there are notable differences, aren't there, in how the changing

0:02:28: weather patterns are affecting different regions, for example Eastern Africa and

0:02:33: Southern Europe are now drier, Northern Europe is getting wetter. Tell us how

0:02:38: this will potentially reshape our planet socially and economically, what effect is

0:02:45: that going to have? Well that's, in a sense, our expertise is on the climate, so the

0:02:51: impact of the climate on human activities is an extra level of

0:02:55: complexity that adds on top of that. But if you look at the climate and how this

0:03:00: is changing, as you were saying, we do see a drying of the Mediterranean, for

0:03:05: instance. This is due to a moderate decrease in precipitation and an

0:03:10: increase in evaporation. And at the same time we do see more energy into the

0:03:15: system, more water vapor into the atmosphere, and these water vapors are

0:03:18: driving more intense precipitation. So we have seen in the last year these extreme

0:03:24: precipitation events, such as the flooding in Greece, in Slovenia, in

0:03:29: Italy and in Libya, and these are profound consequences on local activities and

0:03:36: livelihoods. So these kinds of events are likely to increase in intensity as a

0:03:42: consequence of climate change. And given the current geopolitical tensions we're

0:03:47: seeing around the world, the conflicts, I mean do people have the time and energy

0:03:51: to give the climate crisis the attention it deserves? In a sense for me we need to

0:04:00: start looking at the climate data and information that National Met Services

0:04:04: and organisations such as Copernicus or ECNWF provide openly and freely to

0:04:09: everyone, because we do know something about the climate and how this is

0:04:12: changing. And this is an asset, a strategic asset that can inform our

0:04:16: decision in the long term. In a sense we don't know what the inflation rate will

0:04:20: be next year or whether the next conflict or where it will take place, but

0:04:25: we do know that sea level will be three millimetres higher next year. And we are

0:04:28: not yet taking full advantage of this information for the strategic value it

0:04:32: gives. Carlo Buontempo, the Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service,

0:04:38: thank you so much for your time today. Thank you.