Last year was the hottest on record and the first calendar year to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, that’s according to the EU’s climate service Copernicus.
“Human-induced climate change remains the primary driver of extreme air and sea surface temperatures”, the latest Copernicus report says.
“Other factors, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), also contributed to the unusual temperatures observed during the year.”
Under the UN Paris Agreement reached at COP21 in 2015, world leaders committed to pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
2024’s breach of 1.5ºC does not yet break that agreement because it is a single year, not the long term average. But it brings us perilously close.
“Each year in the last decade is one of the ten warmest on record. We are now teetering on the edge of passing the 1.5ºC level defined in the Paris Agreement and the average of the last two years is already above this level”, says Samantha Burgess at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
“These high global temperatures, coupled with record global atmospheric water vapour levels in 2024, meant unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rainfall events, causing misery for millions of people.”
For Europe, 2024 was the warmest year on record with an average temperature of 1.47°C above the average seen between 1991-2020.
Climate scientists say that climate change doesn’t necessarily mean hotter weather or more sunshine. In some cases it could cause the opposite.
But many scientists agree that climate change is making weather more unpredictable with more extreme weather events.
“In 2024, extreme weather events were observed worldwide, ranging from severe storms and floods to heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
The increasing frequency and intensity of such events pose a significant risk to the livelihoods of people across the globe”, the Copernicus report adds.
Copernicus is a part of the European Union’s space programme, funded by the EU. The Copernicus Climate Change Service is operated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, an independent intergovernmental organisation, on behalf of the EU.