Why it matters: The warnings have proved sadly accurate: 2024 was the hottest year on record, marking the first time that average temperatures exceeded the key target of 1.5C above pre-industrial times. It's a cause for concern, especially as 2023 was also a record hot year.
Data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows that the average temperature in 2024 was 1.6C higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900, before humans started burning fossil fuels on large scales. That marks an increase of 0.1C from 2023.
The 2015 Paris Agreement, to which most countries have committed, aims to stop average global temperatures from exceeding 1.5C. While this is the first year above that temperature, it does not breach the Agreement's target, which is measured over a decade or two. However, the C3S said each year in the last decade is one of the ten warmest on record, and the situation looks to be worsening. At this rate, the world could be 2.7C warmer than pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
More depressing data from C3S included confirmation that July 22, 2024, was the hottest day in recorded history. It also showed that a record 44% of the planet was affected by strong to extreme heat stress on July 10.
"There's now an extremely high likelihood that we will overshoot the long-term average of 1.5C in the Paris agreement limit," Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director at C3S, said. "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."
C3S director Carlo Buontempo said the warmer temperatures were leading to more extreme climate events, including heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires.
Scientists say rapid swings between dry and wet conditions in Los Angeles in recent years, boosted by climate change, has created a huge amount of tinder-dry vegetation that is fuelling the wildfires in the region, where ten people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed.
As reported by Climate Home News, researchers collaborating with the World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central projects said last month that climate change had intensified 26 of the 29 extreme weather events they studied during 2024.
"The world doesn't need to come up with a magical solution to stop things from getting worse in 2025," said Dr Friederike Otto, at Imperial College London. "We know exactly what we need to do to transition away from fossil fuels, halt deforestation and make societies more resilient."
A more recent addition to global carbon emissions is the rise of data centers, which have seen their numbers increase due to the huge demand for cloud services, generative AI, and data storage. They contribute to 1-2% of global carbon emissions, putting them on par with the aviation industry. While companies are looking at other ways of powering and building these facilities, carbon emissions in 2024 are still expected to have set a new record high.
2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing the critical 1.5°C threshold
