PARIS, France (AFP) — Global heating persisted as the new norm, with last month the second warmest May on record on land and in the oceans, according to the European Union’s (EU) climate monitoring service.

The planet’s average surface temperature dipped below the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, just shy of the record for May set last year, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The same held for the world’s oceans. With a surface temperature of 20.79°C, last month was second only to May 2024, with some unprecedented warmth regionally.

“Large areas in the northeast North Atlantic, which experienced a marine heatwave, had record surface temperatures for the month,” Copernicus reported. “Most of the Mediterranean Sea was much warmer than average.”

The increasingly dire state of the oceans is front and centre at the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), which kicked off Monday in Nice, France.

Ocean heatwaves are driving marine species to migrate, decimating coral reefs, damaging ecosystems, and reducing the ability of ocean layers to mix, which hinders the distribution of nutrients.

Covering 70 per cent of the globe’s surface, oceans redistribute heat and play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate.

Surface water warmed by climate change drives increasingly powerful storms, causing new levels of destruction and flooding in their wake.

Some parts of Europe, meanwhile, “experienced their lowest levels of precipitation and soil moisture since at least 1979”, Copernicus noted.

Britain has been in the grips of its most intense drought in decades, with Denmark and the Netherlands also suffering from a lack of rain.

Persistent dry conditions have also led to the lowest spring river flow across Europe since records began in 1992.