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An “extraordinary” rise in global average temperatures has sparked concerns that climate change is accelerating faster than expected, with global temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees for the first time last year, a major international announced by the institution.
Europe’s Copernicus Observatory confirmed on Friday that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with average surface temperatures 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels after greenhouse gas emissions hit a new high. did.
It was the first time in a calendar year that average temperatures exceeded the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius and ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“To be honest, we’re running out of metaphors to explain the warming we’re seeing,” said Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo.
He added that last year’s spate of climate disasters, from floods to heat waves, were not statistical anomalies but were clearly linked to climate change due to increases in carbon dioxide and methane.
Copernicus said the decade from 2015 to 2024 was the warmest on record.
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The coordinated release of 2024 data by six climate watchdogs comes days before President-elect Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
Some companies around the world are also starting to weaken their climate goals and roll back their environmental efforts.
“Reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius is like watching the first domino fall in a catastrophic chain reaction,” said Patrick McGuire, a climate researcher at the University of Reading. “We’re playing with fire. Every degree change causes more intense storms, longer droughts and more dangerous heat waves.”
The latest data does not indicate a definitive violation of the Paris Agreement, whose targets refer to average temperatures measured over 20 years.
But concerns that climate change is accelerating are fueled by evidence that the world’s oceans are cooling more slowly than expected after naturally occurring El Niño events warmed the Pacific Ocean.
Tim Renton, professor of climate change and earth system science at the University of Exeter, said: “The most surprising thing is how much warmer 2024 and much of 2023 will be,” adding that the temperature rise over this period is The scale and sustainability of the project were “extraordinary,” he said. ”.
He added: “This is a clear sign of climate instability. Less stable systems experience larger and more persistent fluctuations.”
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Copernicus said that while anthropogenic climate change was the main cause of extreme temperatures and sea surface temperatures in 2024, other factors also contributed, such as the El Niño phenomenon, which officially ended last June.
This year is expected to be cooler than 2024, in part due to the weakening of the cyclical El Niño. The beginning of a weak La Niña cooling cycle was confirmed by the US Weather Service on Thursday.
But Samantha Burgess of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said it was still probably among the three hottest on record.
“We now live in a climate that is very different from what our parents and grandparents experienced,” she said, adding that it has probably been 125,000 years since temperatures were as hot as they are today. .
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Copernicus said 2024 was the warmest year on record for all continental regions except Antarctica and Australasia, and “significant parts” of the world’s oceans, particularly the North Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. .
Burgess said global atmospheric water levels in 2024 will reach record levels, 5% above the 1991-2020 average, resulting in “unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rains, causing dire consequences for millions of people.” It’s creating a situation.”
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