Australia passed a grim milestone last week registering the hottest August day in history, as record warmth across the globe makes clear the impact of climate change on global temperatures.

On Friday, the temperatures reached a top of 39.7 degrees in parts of Queensland, making it the state’s hottest August day.

It was alongside other temperature records being broken in Western Australia, where residents near Broome had to endure 41.6-degree heat.

Dr Lesley Hughes, a Climate Councillor and distinguished professor of biology at Macquarie University, said temperatures are rapidly escalating globally.

“Last year was the hottest year on record and 2024 could see that record broken,” she said.

“Coming into summer, we’ve had a very warm and short winter by usual standards. It’s only just September now and we’ve got record temperatures.”

She said that although more data is required to conclusively state if this is an ongoing trend “or just a blip”, it is safe to say that human-caused climate change is playing a role in it.

“We should be expecting climate change to get worse before it gets better, especially as emissions continue to rise,” Hughes said.

“We need to do two things: Firstly, be prepared for things like bushfires over the summer, and secondly, it should be forcing us to act with even more urgency to reduce emissions.”

Global trend

July 2024 was the second warmest month on record globally, just 0.04 degrees below the previous high in July 2023, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said “Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere.”

“Widespread, intense and extended heatwaves have hit every continent in the past year,” she said.

“At least 10 countries have recorded daily temperatures of more than 50 degrees in more than one location.”

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, in its spring long-range forecast, predicted that every state across the country has an increased chance of warmer-than-usual weather across spring, with an increased chance of unusually warm days and nights for most states.

Hughes said that rising global emissions in line with warming weather is a sign that not enough is being done.

“We are hoping that Chinese emissions will peak this year or next and as the world’s highest emitter that is being hotly anticipated,” she said.

“Here in Australia, we need to not be opening new coal, oil and gas developments, because we can’t on one hand say that we’re doing this great renewable rollout to reduce emissions, and on the other hand giving the go ahead to dig up more fossil fuels to be burnt.”

Roadmap to zero

Earlier in the year, the Albanese government revealed that gas was set to play a key role in Australia’s energy mix for the foreseeable future, as the Coalition stumps for a nuclear energy plan that would extend the usage of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are set to play a key role in Australia’s energy mix, regardless of who wins the next federal election. Photo: Getty

Hughes said Australia has had “an economy driven by fossil fuel forms of energy” that has delivered cheap energy, but created high emissions per capita.

“It’s affecting our food security, our economy and it’s affecting us psychologically too,” she said.

“In days gone past, most people looked forward to summer for all sorts of good reasons, being on holidays or going to the beach, and now a lot of Australians look at summer with a degree of dread because of extreme heat and bushfire risk.”