Climate change: 2024 almost certainly a record year
The current year is heading for a new temperature record: 2024 will almost certainly be the warmest year globally since records began.
09.12.2024, 04:42
SDA
It is also likely to be the first year in which it is on average more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average, as reported by the EU climate change service Copernicus.
Copernicus relies on a data set based on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, airplanes and weather stations around the world. The US climate agency NOAA recently also believed that 2024 was likely to be a record year.
Even if the year as a whole ends up being around 1.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850 to 1900): The Paris 1.5 degree target for containing the climate crisis is therefore not yet considered to have been missed. Instead, the focus is on longer-term average values.
Ambitious climate protection measures required
Copernicus also reported that November 2024 was the second warmest November worldwide. The global surface temperature averaged 14.1 degrees Celsius.
"With Copernicus data from the penultimate month of the year, we can now confirm with a fair degree of certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record... ", summarizes Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in the press release. Ambitious climate protection measures are more urgent than ever.
