The summer of 2018 was the hottest on record in England. The Met Office (the United Kingdom's meteorological service) reported as much in a statement published on 31 August, indicating that the average temperature for the June–August period this year stood at 17.2 degrees Celsius. This exceeds the previous record, set in 1976, by 0.2 degrees.

Average temperature in England reaches 17.2 degrees

Across the rest of Great Britain (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) the figures were also particularly high: temperatures reached 15.8 degrees, matching the readings recorded in 1976, 2003 and 2006. The Met Office itself points out, however, that long-term estimates suggest the summer just passed does not represent an anomaly, but rather a signal of ongoing climate change.

Whilst average temperatures above 17 degrees have so far been recorded on only ten occasions since 1659 (six of them after 1976), the UK's meteorological service believes this will become the norm in the future. It is no coincidence that last July the Environmental Audit Committee — a body made up of British MPs from across the political spectrum — had raised the alarm, warning that the United Kingdom is not prepared to cope with heatwaves of such duration and intensity.

Wildfires reached the Arctic Circle during the summer

In this respect, however, the English are not alone. Over the course of the summer, countries such as Sweden also found themselves facing temperatures far above normal, which contributed to an extraordinary sequence of wildfires that spared not even the Arctic Circle. And elsewhere in the world — from Australia to New Zealand, from Japan to South Korea — temperatures broke historic records, also causing the deaths of dozens of people.

The hopes of a change in course depend heavily on joint action by all the nations of the planet. Following the momentum of the Paris Agreement reached at the end of Cop 21 (the United Nations world climate conference) in 2015, negotiations appear to have stalled. Ahead of Cop 24, which will be held in December in Poland, a new round of talks between the parties has opened in Bangkok, Thailand.

Climate negotiations continue in Bangkok ahead of Cop 24 in Katowice

The Polish president of the Conference, Michal Kurtyka, admitted: "We are not moving fast enough." Yet "the time available to us is limited" and what is at stake is "the very credibility of the process" launched in 2015. The goal of keeping the rise in global average temperature to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, relative to pre-industrial levels, cannot be achieved without further, far-reaching efforts from all parties.

Above all from the world's wealthy nations — those, that is, that pollute the most. Some environmental activists demonstrated outside the building where the meetings are being held for precisely this reason. Meanwhile Patricia Espinosa, secretary of the Unfccc (the United Nations framework convention that organises the Cops), warned: "Ours is a race against time. We must work with the urgency of the situation in mind."