This year will be the warmest on record, with extraordinarily high temperatures persisting at least into the first months of 2025, European Union scientists said on Monday.
2024 broke the record for the warmest year on record PHOTO Shutterstock
The data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) comes two weeks after UN climate talks led to a $300 billion deal to tackle climate change, a package criticized by poorer countries as insufficient to cover the rising costs of climate disasters, according to Reuters.
C3S said data from January to November confirmed that 2024 is now, with certainty, the hottest year on record and the first in which average global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial 1850 -1900.
The previous warmest year was 2023.
Extreme weather swept the world in 2024, including severe drought in Italy and South America, fatal floods in Nepal, Sudan and Europe, heat waves in Mexico, Mali and Saudi Arabia that killed thousands, and devastating cyclones in the US and the Philippines.
Man, the main culprit
Scientific studies have confirmed the impact of human-caused climate change on all these disasters.
Last month was the second warmest November on record, after November 2023.
“We are still in near-record global temperature territory, and this is likely to continue for at least the next few months”Copernicus climate scientist Julien Nicolas told Reuters.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.
The need for urgent measures
Reducing emissions to net zero – as many governments have promised to do in the future – will stop global warming from worsening. However, despite these green promises, global CO2 emissions are on track to hit a record high this year.
Scientists are also monitoring the possibility of La Niña – which involves cooling of ocean surface temperatures – in 2025.
This phenomenon could temporarily cool global temperatures, but it would not stop the long-term warming trend caused by carbon emissions. The world is currently in neutral conditions after El Niño – the warmer opposite of La Niña – ended earlier this year.
“While 2025 may be slightly cooler than 2024, if a La Niña event develops, this does not mean temperatures will be ‘safe’ or ‘normal’,” said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial College London.
“We will continue to experience high temperatures that will lead to dangerous heat waves, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones.”
C3S records date back to 1940 and are cross-checked with global temperature records going back to 1850.
