The year 2024 has been declared the world’s warmest on record globally, becoming the first calendar year to exceed 1.5 C above its pre-industrial levels. The Copernicus Climate Change Service, which is the European Union’s Earth observation program, made the official declaration on Friday. This comes in the backdrop of wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, California, which, scientists claim, has been made worse by climate change.
Why such spike in heat?
The spike in the global heat profile is being attributed to humanity’s ongoing greenhouse gas emissions, caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The warming is not expected to stop unless net-zero emissions are realised by major emitters worldwide. Notably, the Copernicus findings are in alignment with other leading global temperature datasets, indicating 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850.
The global average temperature in 2024 was about 1.6°C above the average temperatures in the late 19th century (which is used to represent pre-industrial levels). On July 22 last year, the daily global average temperature reached 17.16°C. This was a new record high.
Earth faces unprecedented warm conditions
Copernicus also found that each year in the last decade was one of the ten warmest on record. According to Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo, the world is now teetering on the edge of passing the 1.5ºC level defined in the Paris Agreement, and the average of the last two years is already above this level.
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.
Estimating the global average surface temperature is no mean feat. The methods vary between organisations, but the overall picture is the same: 2024 was the world’s hottest year on record.
(With inputs from AP)
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