“2024: The Hottest Year on Record Signals Climate Crisis Escalation”
In a groundbreaking revelation, new data has shown that global warming surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels in 2024, marking it as the hottest year on record. The Earth’s average temperature in 2024 soared to approximately 2.9 F (1.6 C) above pre-industrial levels as greenhouse gas emissions reached an all-time high, according to the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Service.
The repercussions of climate breakdown and the resultant human suffering are already visible through unprecedented heatwaves, storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires witnessed across the globe. Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), expressed concern about the escalating global temperatures and record atmospheric water vapor levels in 2024, leading to extreme heatwaves and heavy rainfall events that have affected millions of people.
The threshold of global warming of 2 C (3.6 F) is considered critical, as surpassing this limit significantly heightens the probability of catastrophic and irreversible climate breakdown. This includes the potential collapse of major ice sheets, extreme heatwaves, severe droughts, water stress, and extreme weather events on a global scale.
Despite the 2015 Paris Agreement, where around 200 countries committed to restricting global temperature rises to 1.5 C or below, the recent data poses a challenge to meeting this target. The long-term average of 1.5 C and the Paris Agreement limit are at risk of being surpassed, as highlighted by Burgess during a recent news conference.
The record temperatures of 2024 can be partially attributed to the El Niño climate cycle, which ended in April 2024. However, temperatures did not revert to previous averages post-El Niño, leading to debates among scientists regarding other contributing factors such as cuts to shipping pollution or reductions in cloud cover accelerating global warming.
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), emphasized the clear long-term trend of increasing temperatures and the resultant impact on extreme weather events. The implications for 2025 remain uncertain, with global sea surface temperatures cooling to typical levels and the development of La Niña in the equatorial Pacific Ocean expected to further reduce temperatures.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stressed the importance of evidence-based action in response to the climate challenge. The fate of humanity lies in our hands, and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.