The final global average temperature calculated for 2024 was not only the hottest year since global temperature records began in 1850, but also the first year to pass a milestone set by world leaders to try to keep the worst impacts of climate change at bay, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said overnight Friday.
The announcement was the first of several expected Friday, as major climate observation organizations agreed to make annual announcements on the same date, including NASA, NOAA and Berkeley Earth.
“All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850,” stated Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus director.
The setting of a new record warm temperature – for the second year in a row – has prompted further pleas from many organizations for more effective and expedient action to try to reign in the warming temperatures, the greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate the warming and the impacts from more intense severe weather events.
That includes events like the drought in California that helped to fuel the firestorm in Los Angeles this week and the extreme rainfall that devastated Western North Carolina as Hurricane Helene and its remnants moved through.
“The future is in our hands – swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate,” Buontempo stated. “Humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence.”