2024 sets new record as the hottest year, breaching the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5°C
Looking ahead to 2025, scientists predict it is unlikely to be another record-breaking year.
The year 2024 surpassed 2023 as the hottest year on record, according to the latest data from the climate monitoring agency Copernicus.
Copernicus is an earth observation programme that monitors the planet's climate and environment.
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In its report, Copernicus notes that global temperatures during the year under review reached a startling 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels, the period before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels.
Notably, this makes 2024 the first calendar year to breach the critical 1.5°C threshold that nations pledged to avoid under the Paris Agreement.
This international accord, signed in 2015, set a global target to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in an effort to mitigate catastrophic climate disruptions.
Increasing climate crisis
This alarming milestone underscores the accelerating impact of the climate crisis, with scientists warning of increasingly severe consequences for ecosystems, weather patterns and human societies worldwide.
Nevertheless, the report emphasises that all of the world's 10 hottest years have occurred in the past decade, culminating in 2024.
While scientists continue to investigate the reasons behind the extreme global temperatures of the past two years, the report suggests that the primary driver is likely the human-induced climate crisis.
It adds that it could have been amplified by El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon known for its warming effects, which began in 2023 and ended earlier this year.
However, the report notes that El Niño alone does not account for the full extent of the heat experienced.
Looking ahead to 2025, scientists predict it is unlikely to be another record-breaking year.
This is due to the onset of La Niña, a natural climate pattern that typically causes a global cooling effect, which was declared earlier this year.
However, climate scientist Paulo Ceppi cautions that people should not assume that climate change is slowing down or levelling off.
"A small dip doesn't change the clear upward trajectory we're on," he said.
Other experts have also warned that the coming decades are likely to be even hotter as humans continue to burn planet-heating coal, oil and gas.
