The year 2024 was the hottest ever recorded and the first full year in which global temperatures surpassed 1.5C above pre-industrial times, scientists said on Friday.
The milestone was confirmed by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which said climate change is pushing the planet's temperature to levels never before experienced by modern humans.
The planet's average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in 1850-1900, the "pre-industrial period" before humans began burning CO2-emitting fossil fuels on a large scale, C3S said.
This breaks the record set in 2023 by just over 0.1C.
Last year was the world's hottest since records began, and each of the past ten years are now the ten warmest on record.
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Climate change impacts
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, world leaders promised to try to stop average temperatures exceeding 1.5C, to avoid more severe and costly climate disasters.
The first year above 1.5C does not breach that target, which measures the longer-term average temperature, but it does take the world a step closer to doing so as fossil fuel emissions continue to heat the atmosphere.
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The impacts of climate change are now visible on every continent.
Raging wildfires in California this week have killed at least five people and destroyed hundreds of homes. In 2024, Bolivia and Venezuela also suffered disastrous fires, while torrential floods hit Nepal, Sudan and Spain, and heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia killed thousands.
Climate change is worsening storms and torrential rainfall, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. The amount of water vapour in the planet's atmosphere reached a record high in 2024.
While the costs of such disasters are spiralling, political will to invest in curbing emissions has waned in some countries.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on 20 January, has called climate change a hoax, despite the global scientific consensus that it is human-caused and will have severe consequences if not addressed.
US scientists will also publish their 2024 climate data on Friday.
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(with Reuters)
