2024 Set to Become Hottest Year on Record

The year 2024 is set to be the hottest on record, with global temperatures expected to surpass those of 2023, according to the European Climate Change Service, Copernicus. The announcement was made ahead of the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, where nations are expected to discuss significant increases in funding to combat climate change. However, the victory of Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. presidential election has tempered expectations surrounding the conference.

Data released by Copernicus shows that from January to October, global temperatures reached levels high enough to make 2024 the warmest year on record, unless a drastic reduction in temperatures occurs in the last months of the year. The main driver behind this increase is climate change, with rising temperatures seen across all continents and ocean basins, according to Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo.

Scientists warn that 2024 will also be the first year in which global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), a critical threshold set by the Paris Agreement. This target aims to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, but experts now predict that the world will surpass it by 2030 due to the ongoing slow pace of global climate action.

Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, expressed concern over the current trajectory and called on governments at COP29 to take more decisive action to reduce fossil fuel use. She noted that the limits set by the Paris Agreement are beginning to break down as global climate measures continue at a sluggish pace.

The effects of global warming are already visible in the form of extreme weather events. In October alone, catastrophic floods in Spain claimed hundreds of lives, record forest fires ravaged Peru, and devastating floods in Bangladesh destroyed more than one million tons of rice, causing a sharp rise in food prices. In the United States, Hurricane Milton became more powerful due to human-induced climate change. Such extreme events are exacerbated by even slight increases in global temperature.

The Copernicus service has been tracking global temperature data since 1940, comparing it to historical records dating back to 1850, and the projections for 2024 highlight the growing urgency for action to address climate change and its devastating consequences.