The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday that six international datasets all confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, extending a decade-long “extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures”.
The WMO’s analysis of the six datasets showed global average surface temperatures were 1.55C above pre-industrial levels.
“This means that we have likely just experienced the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5C above the [year] 1850-1900 average,” it said.
While this does not mean the internationally agreed 1.5C warming threshold has been permanently breached, the UN warned it was in “grave danger”.
Europe’s climate monitor Copernicus, which provided one of the datasets the WMO analysed, found that both of the past two years had exceeded the warming limit set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Global temperatures had soared “beyond what modern humans have ever experienced”, it said.
Scientists stressed that the 1.5C threshold in the Paris Agreement refers to a sustained rise over decades, offering a glimmer of hope.
Still, Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research called the milestone a “stark warning sign”.
“We have now experienced the first taste of a 1.5C world, which has cost people and the global economy unprecedented suffering and economic costs,” he told Agence France-Presse.
‘Trail-blazing climate action’ required, UN says
“Today’s assessment from the World Meteorological Organization is clear,” UN chief António Guterres said.
“Global heating is a cold, hard fact.”
He added: “Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025. There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act — now.”
The United States became the latest country to report its heat record had been shattered, capping a year marked by devastating tornadoes and hurricanes.
The announcement came just days before president-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to double-down on fossil fuel production, was set to take office.
Excess heat is supercharging extreme weather, and in 2024, countries from Spain to Kenya, the United States and Nepal suffered disasters that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Another record-breaking year is not anticipated in 2025, as a UN deadline looms for nations to commit to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
“My prediction is it will be the third-warmest year,” said NASA’s top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, citing the US determination that the year has begun with a weak La Niña, a global weather pattern that is expected to bring slight cooling.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in Paris in 2015 that meeting 1.5C offered the best chance of preventing the most catastrophic repercussions of climate change.
But the world remains far off track.
While Copernicus records date back to 1940, other climate data from ice cores and tree rings suggest Earth is now likely the warmest it has been in tens of thousands of years.
The World Meteorological Organisation says six datasets all confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record. Source: AAP, AP / Victoria Jones
Tags: Europe's climate monitor Copernicus, extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, World Meteorological Organization
