Global temperatures in 2024 have reached unprecedented levels, making it the hottest year since records began, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The trend of extraordinarily high temperatures is expected to continue into early 2025.
Data from C3S reveals that the average global temperature for 2024 has surpassed the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), cementing its place as the warmest year recorded. Previously, 2023 held the record.
Extreme weather events have marked 2024, including devastating droughts in Italy and South America, deadly floods in Nepal, Sudan, and Europe, and intense heatwaves in Mexico, Mali, and Saudi Arabia. Catastrophic cyclones also struck the United States and the Philippines. Scientific analyses attribute these disasters to human-induced climate change, driven largely by carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Although temperatures may slightly dip in 2025 if a La Niña weather pattern emerges, experts caution this will not signal a return to safe or normal conditions. “We will still experience high temperatures, resulting in dangerous heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and tropical cyclones,” said Friederike Otto, a senior climate scientist at Imperial College London.
The findings come shortly after global climate talks resulted in a $300 billion agreement to combat climate change—criticized by developing nations as inadequate to address the escalating costs of climate-related disasters.
