September has brought some much-needed relief to all of us as the weather finally started to cool down.

August was just brutal because of the unprecedented heat wave. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, it was the hottest month as the average nationwide temperature reached 28 degrees Celsius, the highest since 1973 when the agency introduced the current weather monitoring system.

In addition, the number of tropical nights, or nights when the lowest temperature was 25 degrees or higher, reached 11.3 days last month, the first double-digit monthly figure. So far this year, the number of tropical nights has been 20.2 days, the most recorded in over half a century, while the number of days when the daily high was 33 degrees Celsius or higher stood at 23.2, the third-most after 31 days in 2018 and 29.6 days in 1994.

In August, it was literally impossible for me to fall asleep every night without air conditioning running full-blast, and this was pretty much the same for everyone else. We will all find out soon how much more we have to pay for last month's electricity bill, compared to previous years. It will be brutal!

But the happy news is that we now can go to sleep without air conditioning on, thanks to the cooler weather. But when we think about next summer and beyond, the chances are we will likely brace for an even stronger heat wave amid the worsening climate change caused by human-made carbon emissions. They make our planet not only hotter but also more unpredictable and extreme, which will surely wreak greater havoc on our daily lives.

A recent ruling by Korea's Constitutional Court timely raised the alarm that we need to take more aggressive and proactive action to reduce carbon emissions.

On Aug. 29, the court ruled that Korea's carbon reduction law does not conform to the Constitution as it fails to protect people's basic human rights beyond 2031. It asked the government and the National Assembly to revise the law by Feb. 28, 2026. Otherwise, the current law will cease to have effect.

The court ruled unanimously that the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth for Coping with Climate Crisis was incompatible with the Korean Constitution in four constitutional complaints filed by youth and civic groups. The act stipulates that Korea reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared to 2018 levels. But it does not set further targets after 2030.

The environmental and civil rights groups welcomed the ruling, saying that Korea should enact more drastic and comprehensive laws to reduce its carbon emissions. Song Doo-hwan, the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, said in a statement that the ruling is the first of its kind in Asia and recognizes the government's lack of response to the climate crisis and that it could infringe upon human rights.

Some may argue that no matter what we do here in Korea, it wouldn't make much difference to the ongoing climate change unless other countries also take more steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But let's do our part first and ask our counterparts around the world to do the same.

Let's take buses and subways and ride bicycles more instead of driving a car. Let's use less plastics, consume more locally produced foods and reduce food waste. There are so many things that we can do in our daily lives to lessen carbon emissions.

Unless we all act together to stop global warming, we may soon have to endure tropical nights not only in summer but all year around.

The writer is politics & city desk editor at The Korea Times.