Two years ago, at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that world leaders needed to address greenhouse gas emissions to prevent air temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
We are only at the beginning of 2025 and we have already crossed that threshold.
According to climate scientists at the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service, global temperatures reached highest levels recorded in 2024rising 1.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and making the year the warmest since records began in 1850. That’s an increase of 2.88 degrees Fahrenheit globally.
According to a Copernicus Report Released on Friday, the global average temperature for the year was 15.10 degrees Celsius (59.18 degrees Fahrenheit). “This is equivalent to 1.6 degrees Celsius above a temperature estimate of 1850-1900 designated as the pre-industrial level,” the report says.
The annual report was released the same week that Los Angeles residents faced catastrophic wildfires that demolished more than 9,000 buildings and killed at least 10 people. Globally, the climate crisis has intensified the severity and frequency of natural disasters, including droughts, hurricanes and floods.
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which contributed to the report, said rising temperatures are a significant contributor to climate-related global disasters.
“These high global temperatures, coupled with record levels of global atmospheric water vapor in 2024, meant unprecedented heat waves and heavy rainfall, causing misery for millions of people,” Burgess said in a statement.
Other highlights from the report:
- According to Copernicus, during the period from 2015 to 2024, each year was one of the 10 warmest on record.
- On July 22, 2024, the daily global average temperature broke a record, reaching 17.16 degrees Celsius or 62.89 degrees Fahrenheit.
- All continental regions except Antarctica and Australasia had their warmest years ever.
Scientists have attributed this type of climate change to human causes, particularly carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. Increased energy use in the home and the enormous amounts of energy required by artificial intelligence technology have not made the task of reducing dependence on fossil fuels any easier.
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