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Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
The year 2024 was the first in which the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, scientists at Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Friday.
A warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius can lead to severe climate change impacts and extreme weather. Pre-industrial levels refer to global atmospheric conditions before the widespread impact of industrialisation, which included burning coal, oil and gas and other such activities.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service is one of six thematic information services provided by the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme of the European Union. It collates data on the climate in Europe and the rest of the world.
On Friday, the climate change service said that 2024 was also the warmest year since 1850 on record globally. It added that the global average temperature last year stood at 15.10 degrees Celsius, overtaking that of 2023 by 0.12 degrees Celsius.
“2024 is 1.60°C above an estimate of the pre-industrial level, making it the first calendar year to exceed the 1.5°C limit,” the service said in a press statement. “Since July 2023, except for July 2024, every month has exceeded the 1.5°C threshold. The average for 2023-’2024 is 1.54°C.”
The past 10 years were the 10 warmest on record, the statement said. It added that a new record high for daily global average temperature of 17.16 degrees Celsius was reached on July 22.
“2024 was the warmest year for all continental regions, except Antarctica and Australasia, as well as for sizeable parts of the ocean, particularly the North Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean,” it said.
Human-induced climate change remained the primary driver of extreme air and sea surface temperatures, the climate change service said. “Other factors, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, also contributed to the unusual temperatures observed during the year,” it added.
The El Niño Southern Oscillation is a recurring climate pattern involving changes in the temperature of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
The total amount of water vapour in the atmosphere had reached a record value in 2024, at about 5% above the 1991 to 2020 average, the service said.
This was also over 1% higher than in the previous highest value recorded in 2016 and the second-highest in 2023.
Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said that all internationally-produced global temperature datasets showed that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850.
“Humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence,” he added. “The future is in our hands – swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.”
Samantha Burgess, another member of the climate change service, noted that each year in the last decade were among the 10 warmest on record.
“We are now teetering on the edge of passing the 1.5°C level defined in the Paris Agreement and the average of the last two years is already above this level,” she said.
Under the 2015 Paris agreement, countries had agreed to keep the long-term global average surface temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century.
“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,” Burgess added.
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