2024 will be the hottest year humanity has ever faced
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has warned that 2024 is "virtually certain" to break all previous records and become the world's warmest year ever. The prediction comes just ahead of the United Nations' climate summit, Climate Change Conference (COP29), in Azerbaijan, where world leaders are expected to discuss ways to combat climate change. According to C3S data, average global temperatures have hit record highs from January to October.
Climate change driving record-breaking temperatures
C3S Director Carlo Buontempo has blamed this year's record-breaking temperatures on climate change. "The climate is warming, generally. It's warming in all continents, in all ocean basins. So we are bound to see those records being broken," he told Reuters. The scientists also expect 2024 to be the first year where global temperatures exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), which saw the beginning of large-scale fossil fuel usage.
Call for action at COP29 summit
Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at ETH Zurich, has urged governments attending the COP29 summit to take decisive action against CO2 emissions. She warned that the targets set in the Paris Agreement are under threat due to insufficient global climate action. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to keep global warming below 1.5°C over several decades to prevent severe consequences. However, C3S now expects this threshold will be crossed around 2030.
Climate change exacerbates extreme weather events
We all know rising temperatures intensify extreme weather events. Recent examples include devastating flash floods in Spain, unprecedented wildfires in Peru, and severe flooding in Bangladesh which ruined over a million tons of rice. In the US, Hurricane Milton's impact was amplified by human-induced climate change. C3S has been maintaining temperature records since 1940 and cross-references them with global data dating back to 1850.
October 2024: Second hottest on record
October 2024 was the second hottest October on record, with global temperatures only exceeded by those in the same month of 2023. The month also saw above-average rainfall across large parts of Europe, the US, Brazil, China, and Australia. C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said these new records should be a catalyst for increased ambition at the upcoming COP29.
