The year 2024 was the first year since measurements began that the global average was more than 1.5 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial average. This also made it the hottest year on record, as reported by the EU Copernicus programme’s climate change service.
In recent months, the Climate Change Service has presented similar preliminary estimates. According to the latest data, the previous year was 1.6 degrees warmer than the estimated average temperature between 1850 and 1900. At the same time, each of the past ten years (2015 to 2024) has been among the ten warmest on record, according to the Reading Climate Change Agency , United Kingdom.
Warmest year since 1850
“All internationally collected global temperature data show that 2024 was the warmest year since records began in 1850,” emphasizes Carlo Buontempo, director of the Climate Change Service. The enormous data set comes from weather stations, satellites, aircraft and ships around the world.
“This report is a warning sign because we must do everything we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Niklas Höhne, co-founder of the NewClimate Institute. “We have to do more than we have done so far.”
Warmest year also measured in Europe
According to Copernicus, the global average temperature in 2024 was 15.10 degrees, 0.12 degrees above the value for 2023, the warmest year on record. A new record for the hottest day was set on July 22, 2024 with a global temperature of 17.16 degrees. 2024 was also the warmest year ever recorded in Europe.
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels if possible. But not only was 2024 warmer, but also the two-year average for 2023 and 2024, which was 1.54 degrees, as Copernicus announced. “This does not mean that we have crossed the line of the Paris Agreement.” The agreement refers to temperature deviations that are averaged over a period of at least twenty years.
“I think the 1.5 degree target is no longer sustainable,” says Andreas Fink of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). According to his knowledge, the technologies for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere will not be able to remove the necessary amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere in the coming decades. It is therefore imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions very quickly. The costs of escalating climate change are significantly higher than those of moving away from coal, oil and gas.
Extreme weather events are increasing
At 1.5 degrees it is a political goal, from which things happen “that we no longer find acceptable,” according to Höhne. 2024 has shown how dangerous such a temperature level already is. “There were extreme events all over the world: temperatures above 50 degrees, extreme precipitation that brought as much rain in one day as usual in a year, and huge fires that could not be extinguished,” the climate researcher emphasizes. “As long as we emit greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise and with them the likelihood of these extreme events.”
Oceans also with record temperatures
According to Copernicus, not only land areas but also oceans outside the polar regions reached a record average annual surface temperature of 20.87 degrees in 2024, 0.51 degrees higher than the average for the years 1991 to 2020.
There was also the highest amount of water vapor ever measured in the atmosphere. In 2024, it was about five percent above the average from 1991 to 2020. This, combined with high sea surface temperatures, contributed to severe storms, including tropical cyclones.
On the other hand, persistent dry spells in several regions encouraged forest fires, Copernicus writes, referring mainly to large-scale and long-lasting forest fires in the Americas. In addition, the area of Earth affected by at least “severe” heat stress reached a new record on July 10, when about 44 percent of the Earth experienced “severe” to “extreme” heat stress.
Record levels of CO₂ and methane
The Copernicus experts see the main reason for the high temperatures as high emissions of man-made greenhouse gases. For example, carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in the atmosphere reached new record levels in 2024 since measurements began. Another factor for the warming was the climate phenomenon El Niño, which peaked in December 2023 and also affected temperatures in the first half of 2024.
Still, Höhne points to positive developments: “We have seen that we can change things,” he said. “Renewable energies, the number of electric cars and heat pumps are developing faster worldwide every year than previously predicted.”
There is still much to do for a better world
“Ten years ago we calculated that global temperatures would rise by 3.5 degrees by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times,” says Höhne, referring to the Climate Action Tracker climate project. Thanks to rapid developments in the field of climate protection, it is now 2.7 degrees. If all countries meet their announced climate neutrality targets, it will be 1.9 degrees, the researcher explains.
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
