2024 'certain' to be hottest year on record
PARIS — This year is "effectively certain" to be the hottest on record and the first above a critical threshold to protect the planet from dangerously overheating, Europe's climate monitor said Monday. The new benchmark affirmed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service caps a year in which countries, rich and poor, were hammered by disasters that scientists have linked to humanity's role in Earth's rapid warming. Water levels at the Wanaque Reservoir are becoming dangerously low as the region experiences an outbreak of wildfires as the dry conditions persist on November 14, 2024 in Wanaque, New Jersey.PHOTO BY SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / VIA AFP Copernicus said an unprecedented spell of extraordinary heat had pushed average global temperatures so high between January and November that this year was sure to eclipse 2023 as the hottest yet. "At this point, it is effectively certain that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record," the EU agency said in its monthly bulletin. In another grim milestone, 2024 will be the first calendar year more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than pre-industrial times before humanity started burning large volumes of fossil fuels. Scientists warn that exceeding 1.5 C over a decades-long period would greatly imperil the planet, and the world agreed under the Paris climate accord to strive to limit warming to this safer threshold. A firefighter works as the Mountain Fire burns on November 7, 2024 near Moorpark, California. PHOTO BY MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP Copernicus Climate Change Service deputy director Samantha Burgess said a single year above 1.5 C "does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached, but it does mean ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever." Cost of inaction The world is nowhere near on track to meeting the 1.5 C target. In October, the UN said the current direction of climate action would result in a catastrophic 3.1 C of warming. Emissions from fossil fuels keep rising despite a global pledge to move the world away from coal, oil and gas. When burned, fossil fuels release greenhouse gases that warm Earth's oceans and atmosphere, disrupting climate patterns and the water cycle. Aerial view of Yagua Indigenous people walking on the banks of the Amazon river at Isla de los Micos, Amazonas department, Colombia, on October 4, 2024. AFP PHOTO
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
PARIS — This year is "effectively certain" to be the hottest on record and the first above a critical threshold to protect the planet from dangerously overheating, Europe's climate monitor said Monday.
The new benchmark affirmed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service caps a year in which countries, rich and poor, were hammered by disasters that scientists have linked to humanity's role in Earth's rapid warming. Water levels at the Wanaque Reservoir are becoming dangerously low as the region experiences an outbreak of wildfires as the dry conditions persist on November 14, 2024 in Wanaque, New Jersey.PHOTO BY SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / VIA AFP
Copernicus said an unprecedented spell of extraordinary heat had pushed average global temperatures so high between January and November that this year was sure to eclipse 2023 as the hottest yet.
"At this point, it is effectively certain that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record," the EU agency said in its monthly bulletin.
In another grim milestone, 2024 will be the first calendar year more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than pre-industrial times before humanity started burning large volumes of fossil fuels.
Scientists warn that exceeding 1.5 C over a decades-long period would greatly imperil the planet, and the world agreed under the Paris climate accord to strive to limit warming to this safer threshold. A firefighter works as the Mountain Fire burns on November 7, 2024 near Moorpark, California. PHOTO BY MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP
Copernicus Climate Change Service deputy director Samantha Burgess said a single year above 1.5 C "does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached, but it does mean ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever."
Cost of inaction
The world is nowhere near on track to meeting the 1.5 C target.
In October, the UN said the current direction of climate action would result in a catastrophic 3.1 C of warming.
Emissions from fossil fuels keep rising despite a global pledge to move the world away from coal, oil and gas.
When burned, fossil fuels release greenhouse gases that warm Earth's oceans and atmosphere, disrupting climate patterns and the water cycle. Aerial view of Yagua Indigenous people walking on the banks of the Amazon river at Isla de los Micos, Amazonas department, Colombia, on October 4, 2024. AFP PHOTO
