PARIS, May 8 — Global temperatures were stuck at near-record highs in April, the EU’s climate monitor said on Thursday, extending an unprecedented heat streak and raising questions about how quickly the world might be warming.

The extraordinary heat spell was expected to subside as warmer El Niño conditions faded last year, but temperatures have stubbornly remained at record or near-record levels well into this year.

“And then comes 2025, when we should be settling back, and instead we are remaining at this accelerated step-change in warming,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

“And we seem to be stuck there. What this is caused by — what is explaining it — is not entirely resolved, but it’s a very worrying sign,” he told AFP.

In its latest bulletin, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that April was the second-hottest in its dataset, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.

All but one of the last 22 months exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming limit enshrined in the Paris Agreement, beyond which major and lasting climate and environmental changes become more likely.

Missed target

Many scientists believe this target is no longer attainable and will be crossed in a matter of years.

A large study by dozens of pre-eminent climate scientists, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, recently concluded that global warming reached 1.36°C in 2024.

Copernicus puts the current figure at 1.39°C and projects 1.5°C could be reached by mid-2029 or sooner, based on the warming trend over the last 30 years.

“Now it’s in four years’ time. The reality is we will exceed 1.5 degrees,” said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus.

“The critical thing is to then not latch onto two degrees, but to focus on 1.51,” the climate scientist told AFP.