This year is “virtually certain” to eclipse 2023 as the world’s warmest since records began, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Data Released Ahead Of U.N. COP29 Climate Summit
The data was released ahead of next week’s U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where countries will try to agree a huge increase in funding to tackle climate change.
Trump’s Return Has Dampened Expectations
Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election has dampened expectations for the talks.
Average Global Temperature
C3S said that from January to October, the average global temperature had been so high that 2024 was sure to be the world’s hottest year.
Unless the temperature anomaly in the rest of the year plunges to near-zero, this is likely to be the scenario.
“The fundamental, underpinning cause of this year’s record is climate change,” C3S Director Carlo Buontempo told Reuters.
Warning In All Continents
“The climate is warming, generally. It’s warming in all continents, in all ocean basins. So we are bound to see those records being broken,” he said.
What Do Scientists Have to Say?
The scientists said 2024 will also be the first year in which the planet is more than 1.5C hotter than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
Main Cause Of Global Warming
Carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are the main cause of global warming.
Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at public research university ETH Zurich, said she was not surprised by the milestone.
Governments Must Agree On Stronger Action
Seneviratne urged governments at COP29 to agree stronger action to wean their economies off CO2-emitting fossil fuels.
2015 Paris Agreement
“The limits that were set in the Paris agreement are starting to crumble given the too-slow pace of climate action across the world,” Seneviratne said.
Countries agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent global warming surpassing 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), to avoid its worst consequences.
The world has not breached that target – which refers to an average global temperature of 1.5C over decades – but C3S now expects the world to exceed the Paris goal around 2030.
“It’s basically around the corner now,” Buontempo said.
Every fraction of temperature increase fuels extreme weather.
Flash Floods And Wildfires
In October this year, catastrophic flash floods killed hundreds of people in Spain and record wildfires tore through Peru.
Flooding And Hurricane
Apart from these, flooding in Bangladesh this year destroyed more than one million tons of rice, sending food prices skyrocketing.
In the U.S., Hurricane Milton was also worsened by human-caused climate change.
Records Of European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service
C3S’ records go back to 1940, which are cross-checked with global temperature records dating back to 1850.