Key points
- 2024 was likely to have been hottest year on record: UN
- It was also the first to surpass 1.5C above pre-industrial levels
- Reports detail climate services, major events, including floods
ISLAMABAD: The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest point in 800,000 years, according to UN research that found 2024 was likely to have been the hottest year on record and the first to surpass 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
In an annual assessment of the climate, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said signs of human-induced climate change “reached new heights” last year, with record greenhouse gas levels — combined with the El Niño weather phenomenon and other factors — causing record heat.
“The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, which was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average,” the report said.
Warmest year
This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record, it added.
The State of the Global Climate 2024 report underlined the massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather and the long-term impacts of record ocean heat and sea-level rise.
Featured articles explored progress towards the Paris Agreement goals and the drivers behind 2024’s record heat.
Supplementary reports detailed climate services and major events, including floods, droughts, tropical cyclones and wildfires, underscoring the urgent need for stronger early warning systems and investment in climate services to protect lives and livelihoods.
Record temperatures
The record temperatures have led to intensified storms and weather-related disasters, with at least 151 “unprecedented” extreme weather events in 2024.
“Millions of people are increasingly suffering the consequences” of climate change in the form of heatwaves, floods, droughts, storms and rising seas, said Stefan Rahmstorf, head of the research department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
“We can only stop the warming trend by getting out of fossil fuels, and we must do it fast,” he said. “Ignoring reality, denying the laws of physics and silencing scientists can only lead to harm, and ordinary people will pay the price for that.”
