2024 Confirmed as Hottest Year Amid Climate Crisis

The climate crisis has reached an alarming threshold, as 2024 is projected to be the hottest year on record. According to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the global average temperature for November 2024 was 1.62°C above preindustrial levels. For the year as a whole, the average temperature is expected to reach 1.60°C, breaking the previous record of 1.48°C set in 2023.
This makes 2024 the first calendar year to surpass the 1.5°C global temperature mark, a symbolic and critical milestone in the worsening climate emergency on Earth. Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S, confirmed this projection, stating, “We can now confirm with virtual certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first calendar year above 1.5°C. While this does not breach the Paris Agreement, it underscores the urgent need for ambitious climate action.”

The Paris Agreement: A Long-Term Benchmark

The Paris Agreement, signed by 196 nations, aims to limit global temperature increases to below 1.5°C over the long term to prevent catastrophic climate impacts. However, this benchmark is calculated based on multi-decade averages rather than individual years.
Despite this technicality, the fact that a single year has crossed the 1.5°C threshold is cause for concern. It highlights the difficulty of achieving long-term temperature stability as global emissions continue to rise. In late 2023, countries pledged to transition away from fossil fuels, yet projections for 2024 show CO2 emissions are likely to increase, making it harder to stay within the 1.5°C target.

Emissions Trends and Climate Challenges

Achieving the Paris Agreement goals requires an immediate and significant reduction in emissions—by 45% by 2030. However, the road ahead appears increasingly fraught with challenges. The recent COP29 climate summit ended without a unified strategy for phasing out coal, oil, and gas, further delaying global progress on emission reductions.
For the 16th time in 17 months, November 2024 recorded a global temperature above 1.5°C, signaling a sustained upward trend in warming. This reflects the broader reality that the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat—it is happening now, with devastating consequences.

Extreme Weather: A Global Reality

The intensification of extreme weather events provides a stark reminder of the human and environmental cost of climate inaction. Heatwaves of unprecedented severity and frequency have struck numerous regions, while storms and floods have become fiercer and more destructive.
In 2024, wildfires wreaked havoc across North and South America, fueled by severe drought conditions. The Amazon rainforest, the Pantanal wetlands, and parts of the western United States and Canada were among the hardest-hit areas. Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), described the scale of these wildfires as historic. He noted that while Canadian wildfires in 2024 were less severe than the record-breaking fires of 2023, other regions, such as Bolivia and the Pantanal, experienced unprecedented devastation. These fires released vast amounts of air pollutants, impacting air quality across continents for weeks. The cascading effects of such events demonstrate how climate change exacerbates interconnected crises, from environmental degradation to public health emergencies.

The Economic Impact of Climate Disasters