As wildfires ravaged California, claiming at least 10 lives and destroying nearly 10,000 structures, scientists confirmed a grim milestone: 2024 was the first year global temperatures exceeded 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported that the planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6ºC higher than in the 1850-1900 period, making it the warmest year on record.
Every month of 2024 ranked as the warmest or second-warmest for its respective month since record-keeping began. While climate change is intensifying disasters worldwide, including deadly heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia and floods in Nepal, Sudan, and Spain, political action has faltered.
Despite pledges under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5ºC, greenhouse gas concentrations reached record highs, with atmospheric CO2 at 422 ppm. Rising emissions, compounded by an El Niño event, drove 2024’s extreme heat. Experts warn that without urgent action, global warming will continue its dangerous trajectory.
However, climate scientists stress it is not too late to change course. “We have the power to alter this path,” said C3S director Carlo Buontempo. With global temperatures poised to remain among the highest in recorded history, urgent emission reductions are critical to preventing further climate disasters.
