According to a statement from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2024 has become the warmest year on record and the first calendar year in which global temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by 1.5 °C. Experts from Copernicus, a climate project of the European Union, noted that this unprecedented global warming is primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion. The warming will not cease until humanity achieves net-zero emissions.
A Year Like No Other
The findings from Copernicus were commented on by Andrew King, a lecturer in climatology at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and David Karoly, an honorary professor at the same university. The conclusions from Copernicus align with results from other authoritative studies, which indicate that last year was the hottest since observations began in 1850. The average global temperature in 2024 was approximately 1.6 °C higher than the average temperature of the late 19th century. On July 22 of last year, the daily global average temperature reached 17.16 °C, setting a new record, as reported by Science Alert. The Copernicus Service also found that every year of the last decade has ranked among the ten warmest on record. As Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo stated, “We are currently teetering on the edge of surpassing the 1.5 ºC threshold set by the Paris Agreement, and the average over the last two years has already exceeded this level.” He added that high global temperatures, combined with record levels of water vapor in the atmosphere, led to unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rainfall in 2024, causing suffering for millions of people. Meanwhile, the climatic factor El Niño heated the Earth’s surface in the first half of the year, particularly across a broad swath of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, raising the global average surface temperature by 0.2 °C.
Does This Mean the Paris Agreement Has Failed?
The global Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. Therefore, the figures for 2024 certainly paint a grim picture. Humanity now faces a monumental task to keep global warming significantly below 2 °C, let alone 1.5 °C. However, it is crucial for humanity to understand one very important thing: the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is roughly proportional to the increase in global temperature over the same period. The faster we decarbonize the global economy, the sooner we can halt global warming and mitigate its impacts. This year is unlikely to be as hot as 2024, as the El Niño phenomenon has already passed. Unfortunately, record-high global temperatures will continue to be recorded on Earth for at least the next few decades.