Already 2023 was warmer than any other year previously recorded by humans. 2024 looks set to surpass that. The EU Copernicus climate change service is reporting a new temperature record: according to its data, 2024 will almost certainly be the hottest year since weather records began. Copernicus draws on a dataset based on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The German Meteorological Service also contributes data. The US climate agency NOAA had likewise recently concluded that 2024 is likely to become a record year.

It is also set to become the first year in which average temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than in the pre-industrial era (1850 to 1900). In 2015, the international community agreed at the Paris Climate Conference to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels wherever possible. However, this refers to the average over a period of several decades. Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said that a single year above the 1.5-degree mark did not mean the Paris Agreement had been breached. "But it does mean that ambitious climate protection measures are more urgent than ever."

Main driver of temperature rise: greenhouse gases

As Copernicus further reported, November 2024 was the second warmest November globally. The global surface temperature averaged 14.1 degrees Celsius that month. "With Copernicus data from the penultimate month of the year, we can now confirm with near certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record…", Samantha Burgess summarised in the statement.

Read more at: dw.com