Brussels: The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Union has announced that 2024 is “virtually certain” to surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record.
The data release comes ahead of the UN COP29 climate summit next week in Azerbaijan, where nations will aim to negotiate a significant increase in funding to combat climate change. However, expectations for the summit have been tempered following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
From January to October, global temperatures have been so elevated that 2024 is guaranteed to be the hottest year ever recorded unless the temperature anomaly drops sharply in the remaining months, C3S said.
This year marks another grim milestone: 2024 will be the first year in which global temperatures exceed 1.5°C above the average temperature from the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, which marks the beginning of large-scale fossil fuel burning.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and gas are the primary drivers of global warming. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to limiting global warming to well below 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most devastating climate impacts.
Although the world has not yet breached this threshold, C3S anticipates that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5°C target by 2030. Even small increases in global temperatures contribute to extreme weather events.
October saw deadly flash floods in Spain, record wildfires in Peru, and catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh that destroyed more than a million tons of rice, driving up food prices. In the US, Hurricane Milton’s intensity was exacerbated by human-induced climate change.
C3S’ records, which extend back to 1940, are cross-verified with global temperature data dating back to 1850.
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