The year 2024 marks a worrying milestone as the global average temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, according to a report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This is an unprecedented level in modern history, clearly demonstrating the increasingly serious impacts of climate change.
The report from C3S said the planet's average temperature in 2024 is 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than the average from 1850-1900, when humans had not yet begun to widely use fossil fuels.
“The trajectory of temperature increases is staggering,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, with every month in 2024 set to be either the hottest or near-hottest on record.
The Met Office also confirmed the increase, estimating the average annual temperature at 1.53 degrees Celsius. Although this is the first year to exceed the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold, it does not mean the world has completely broken the target of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
However, the current trend of rising temperatures is pushing humanity closer to the risk of permanently crossing this threshold if emissions are not cut urgently.
Climate change has left a clear mark on every continent in 2024. Many natural disasters occurred such as wildfires in California, Bolivia and Venezuela, severe floods in Nepal, Sudan...
