2024 is confirmed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to be the warmest year since 1850.
Average global temperature exceeded 1.5°C above its pre-industrial level.
European Commission by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), NASA, NOAA, the UK Met Office, Berkeley Earth and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), compiled data which led to these findings.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service said “humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence. The future is in our hands – swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.”
Data indicating 2024 is the first calendar year that has reached more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level, has raised concern.
In addition, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said the warmest years ever, we’re between 2015 and 2024.
A new record high for daily temperature was recorded on the 22nd of July 2024, at 17,16°.
As a result, Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate, ECMWF said “each year in the last decade is one of the ten warmest on record. We are 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.”