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The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) recently projected that 2024 will almost certainly become the hottest year on record, surpassing the high temperatures of 2023.
The announcement comes ahead of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where countries will debate a major increase in climate funding.
C3S data shows that from January to October, global temperatures have reached unprecedented levels, making it inevitable that 2024 will set a new heat record unless temperatures plummet in the final months of the year.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S, attributed this record breaking warmth directly to climate change, noting that temperatures are rising on every continent and in all ocean basins.
This year will also mark the first time that global temperatures exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), a significant milestone since human-induced climate warming began. The main contributors to this warming trend are carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and gas.
Sonia Seneviratne, climate scientist at ETH Zurich, emphasised that this milestone underscores the need for stronger commitments at COP29 to move away from fossil fuels. She noted that climate action remains too slow to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C, a target now anticipated to be surpassed by 2030 if current trends persist.
Rising temperatures are already intensifying extreme weather events. In October, flash floods in Spain claimed hundreds of lives, wildfires swept across Peru, and flooding in Bangladesh destroyed over a million tons of rice, spiking food prices. In the U.S., Hurricane Milton’s intensity was amplified by climate change.
C3S data, cross referenced with historical records dating back to 1850, underscores that 2024’s record temperatures reflect a longstanding warming trend, driven by human activity.
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