The Copernicus climate monitoring service announced it in summer and the forecasts have been scrupulously fulfilled: the year 2024 that we have just left behind has been the warmest on the planet since there are records and the first calendar year in which the average temperature has exceeded at 1.5°C the level before the industrial revolution.
Specifically, the global average temperature was 0.72 °C above the average between 1991 and 2020, and 0.12 °C above the level of 2023, the previous warmest year on record. This is equivalent to 1.60 °C above the temperature estimate between 1850 and 1900, designated as the pre-industrial level and used as a reference.
The data also indicates that the limit of 1.5 °C established as a safe limit in the Paris Agreement was exceeded during 11 months of the year. If we go back further, every month since July 2023, except July 2024, has exceeded the threshold. And on July 22, 2024, a new record for daily global average temperature was established, standing at 17.16 °C.
Although this does not mean that the limit set by the Paris Agreement – which refers to temperature anomalies averaged over at least 20 years – has been exceeded, it does show that global temperatures are increasing beyond what modern humans have known. never experienced.
But it’s not the only bad news. All indicators recorded in a joint effort by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), NASA, NOAA, the United Kingdom Met Office, Berkeley Earth and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) break previous records in an escalation that threatens human life on the planet.
Suffering of millions of people
“Each year of the last decade is one of the ten warmest on record,” says Samantha Burgess, Strategic Climate Manager at CEPMPM. “These high global temperatures, coupled with record levels of water vapor in the global atmosphere in 2024, resulted in unprecedented heat waves and episodes of torrential rain, which have caused suffering for millions of people.”
Every year of the last decade is one of the ten warmest on record. This resulted in extreme episodes that have caused suffering to millions of people.
Samantha Burgess
— Strategic Climate Manager of the CEPMPM
Extreme weather events have occurred around the world in 2024, from severe storms and floods to heat waves, droughts and forest fires. Throughout the year, much of the Northern Hemisphere experienced more days than average with at least “strong heat stress” and some areas recorded more than average days with “extreme heat stress.”
The increasing frequency and intensity of these phenomena pose a significant risk to the lifestyles of people across the planet. Part of the blame was the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which reached an all-time high in 2024, standing around 5% above the 1991-2020 average, a figure significantly higher than that of 2023. .
This abundant volume of humidity amplified the potential for extreme precipitation, as we unfortunately experienced in the dana that hit Valencia at the end of October. Additionally, combined with high sea surface temperatures, it contributed to the development of large storms and tropical cyclones.
Records on continents and oceans
On the other hand, 2024 was the warmest year for all continents except Antarctica and Australasia, as well as for considerable parts of the oceans, particularly the North Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. In 2024, the annual mean sea surface temperature over the extrapolated ocean reached an all-time high of 20.87°C, 0.51°C above the 1991-2020 average.
Regarding greenhouse gases, concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere continued to rise and reached record annual levels in 2024, recording 422 parts per million (ppm) and 1,897 parts per billion (ppb), respectively. Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2024 were 2.9 ppm higher than in 2023, while methane concentrations increased by 3 ppb.
“Our data clearly indicate a constant global increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which continue to be the main agent of climate change,” he says. Laurence Rouildirector of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS).
Finally, sea ice extent in the Arctic and around Antarctica was significantly below average. In Antarctica it reached record or near-record low values for the second consecutive year. Arctic sea ice extent remained close to the 1991-2020 average until July, but fell well below average in the following months. During the period in which it recorded its annual minimum, in September, it was the fifth lowest monthly extent since satellite records began.
“We ran out of metaphors”
“Honestly, I am running out of metaphors to explain the warming we are experiencing,” he acknowledged. Carlo Buontempodirector of the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the CEPMPM in a press conference with international journalists. By region, the specialist has pointed out that the Mediterranean is a hot spot, given that Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world. “There will be more severe heat waves, as we have seen in the last two years in Spain and Italy, an increase in fires is also expected and, at the same time, an increase in more extreme rainfall, as we have seen in Valencia, but also in Slovenia and the Czech Republic,” he says.
In any case, the authors of the report want to send an optimistic message, because there is room to redirect the situation if governments become aware of the seriousness of the problem. “Humanity is the master of its destiny, but our response to the climate challenge must be based on evidence,” says Buontempo. “The future is in our hands; “Swift and decisive action can still change the trajectory of our future climate.”
The future is in our hands; “Quick and decisive action can still change the trajectory of our future climate.”
Carlo Buontempo
— Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the CEPMPM
“The fact that the 1.5°C limit has been reached for the first time gives even more urgency to the situation,” he says. Anna Cabréclimate scientist associated with the University of Pennsylvania (United States) in statements to the SMC. “This underlines the need to invest more in adaptation and, above all, not to lose sight of the 1.5°C target and use it as a motivation to move more decisively towards solutions, before the extremes become too much.” dangerous or we reach the points of no return.”
“What really matters is preventing that figure from becoming a new norm in the long term,” he adds. Ernesto Rodríguez CaminoSenior State Meteorologist and member of the Spanish Meteorological Association. “The Valencia floods, the US hurricanes, the Philippine typhoons and the Amazon drought are just four of last year’s catastrophes that were worsened by climate change. “There are many more,” he says. Friederike Ottosenior lecturer at the Center for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, to SMC UK.
“The world does not need to invent a magic solution to prevent things from getting worse in 2025,” concludes Otto: “We know exactly what we need to do to abandon fossil fuels, stop deforestation and make societies more resilient to change. climate problems that we see so clearly in this report.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
