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2024 Set to Break Heat Records, Surpassing 1.5°C

Climate and Weather

Global Temperature Rise: Emissions Breaching Limits

Business Honor
08 November, 2024

2024 set to break heat records, surpassing 1.5°C rise, urging urgent climate action

It is now "virtually certain" that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, according to projections by the European climate service. Global temperatures will rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the first time, breaching this symbolic threshold in a calendar year.

This record is due to anthropogenic global warming, amplified by the natural El Niño, which has driven temperatures up. The new record, which was established in 2023 and is at 1.48°C above the pre-industrial era, is going to be broken as 2024 has ended up at least 1.55°C warmer.

This marks a critical 1.5°C milestone because the Paris Climate Agreement had set this as the target for the nearly 200 countries that made the commitment to limit warming and hold off on the worst impacts of climate change in 2015. The breach of 1.5°C within one year indicates the imperative of urgency in climate action.

"This marks a new milestone in global temperature records," says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus Climate Change Service. "This new record sends a stark warning to governments ahead of COP29 in Azerbaijan next week."

This year, the global temperatures have been extremely high, with an all-time record every single day. Scientists theorize that the cooling phase of La Niña would snatch away 2025 a little bit temporarily, but no one has any doubts that the level of green-house gas is rising and extreme weather events like heat waves, storms, and heavy rain are rapidly becoming more common and intense.

Climate scientist Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading warns that only by achieving net-zero emissions and stabilizing global temperatures will anything prevent even greater disaster.