Wednesday, 15 January, 2025
The world has just experienced its first full year with global temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, scientists revealed on Friday.
This milestone was confirmed by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which attributed the alarming trend to climate change pushing global temperatures to levels unprecedented in modern human history.
"The trajectory is truly astonishing," said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, highlighting that every month of 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest for that respective month since records began.
According to C3S, the planet's average temperature in 2024 was 1.6°C higher than during the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), when large-scale CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels first began. Last year was officially the hottest year on record, with each of the past ten years ranking among the ten warmest.
Britain's Met Office corroborated the 1.5°C breach, estimating an annual average of 1.53°C for 2024. US scientists are expected to release their own climate data later on Friday.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C to avert severe and costly climate disasters. While this year's breach does not violate the target—which measures longer-term averages—Buontempo warned that rising greenhouse gas emissions are putting the world on a path to surpass this goal permanently.
"It's not inevitable," he said. "We still have the power to alter this trajectory by taking rapid action to cut emissions and prevent further catastrophic warming."
The impacts of climate change are already evident across every continent, affecting both wealthy and impoverished nations.
In California, wildfires have killed at least five people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Bolivia and Venezuela have also battled devastating fires this year, while Nepal, Sudan, and Spain faced severe floods. Heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia claimed thousands of lives, underscoring the global scale of the crisis.
Climate change is intensifying storms and torrential rain, as a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, resulting in heavier downpours. In 2024, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere reached a record high, further exacerbating extreme weather events.
Despite the escalating toll of climate disasters, political resolve to reduce emissions has faltered in some nations.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who assumes office on January 20, has dismissed climate change as a "hoax," contradicting the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is driving the crisis with dire consequences if unaddressed.
The United States endured 24 climate and weather disasters in 2024, each causing damages exceeding $1 billion. Among them were Hurricanes Milton and Helene, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor of global climate governance at Britain's University of Bristol, said the 1.5C milestone should serve as "a rude awakening to key political actors to get their act together".
"Despite all the warnings that scientists have given, nations... are continuing to fail to live up to their responsibilities," he told Reuters.
Concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, reached a fresh high of 422 parts per million in 2024, C3S said.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at US non-profit Berkeley Earth, said he expected 2025 to be among the hottest years on record, but likely not top the rankings.
"It's still going to be in the top three warmest years," he said.
That's because while the biggest factor warming the climate is human-caused emissions, temperatures in early 2024 got an extra boost from El Nino, a warming weather pattern which is now trending towards its cooler La Nina counterpart.
Comments
The world has just experienced its first full year with global temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, scientists revealed on Friday.
This milestone was confirmed by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which attributed the alarming trend to climate change pushing global temperatures to levels unprecedented in modern human history.
"The trajectory is truly astonishing," said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, highlighting that every month of 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest for that respective month since records began.
According to C3S, the planet's average temperature in 2024 was 1.6°C higher than during the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), when large-scale CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels first began. Last year was officially the hottest year on record, with each of the past ten years ranking among the ten warmest.
Britain's Met Office corroborated the 1.5°C breach, estimating an annual average of 1.53°C for 2024. US scientists are expected to release their own climate data later on Friday.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C to avert severe and costly climate disasters. While this year's breach does not violate the target—which measures longer-term averages—Buontempo warned that rising greenhouse gas emissions are putting the world on a path to surpass this goal permanently.
"It's not inevitable," he said. "We still have the power to alter this trajectory by taking rapid action to cut emissions and prevent further catastrophic warming."
The impacts of climate change are already evident across every continent, affecting both wealthy and impoverished nations.
In California, wildfires have killed at least five people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Bolivia and Venezuela have also battled devastating fires this year, while Nepal, Sudan, and Spain faced severe floods. Heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia claimed thousands of lives, underscoring the global scale of the crisis.
Climate change is intensifying storms and torrential rain, as a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, resulting in heavier downpours. In 2024, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere reached a record high, further exacerbating extreme weather events.
Despite the escalating toll of climate disasters, political resolve to reduce emissions has faltered in some nations.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who assumes office on January 20, has dismissed climate change as a "hoax," contradicting the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is driving the crisis with dire consequences if unaddressed.
The United States endured 24 climate and weather disasters in 2024, each causing damages exceeding $1 billion. Among them were Hurricanes Milton and Helene, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor of global climate governance at Britain's University of Bristol, said the 1.5C milestone should serve as "a rude awakening to key political actors to get their act together".
"Despite all the warnings that scientists have given, nations... are continuing to fail to live up to their responsibilities," he told Reuters.
Concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, reached a fresh high of 422 parts per million in 2024, C3S said.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at US non-profit Berkeley Earth, said he expected 2025 to be among the hottest years on record, but likely not top the rankings.
"It's still going to be in the top three warmest years," he said.
That's because while the biggest factor warming the climate is human-caused emissions, temperatures in early 2024 got an extra boost from El Nino, a warming weather pattern which is now trending towards its cooler La Nina counterpart.
Comments
