The year 2024 was the warmest on record globally and the first calendar year in which the global average temperature exceeded the warming threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, says a report from the European Copernicus Observatory, published Friday.
« All internationally produced global temperature datasets show 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850“, underlines Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus service for climate change.
According to the Copernicus ERA5 database, the year 2024 saw a global average temperature of 15.10°C, which is 0.72°C above the average for the period 1991-2020, 0.12°C above the average temperature of 2023, which was previously the hottest year on record, and 1.6°C above the so-called era pre-industrial (1850-1900).
Furthermore, a new record for daily average temperature was even reached on July 22, 2024, at 17.16°C, notes the observatory, noting that the causes of this surge in mercury are mainly of human origin, in particular emissions. of greenhouse gases due to the burning of fossil fuels, while other factors, such as the El Niño phenomenon, fueled the extreme temperatures experienced last year.
At the beginning of November, a few days before the 29th UN climate conference in Baku, Copernicus had already suggested that 2024 would “almost certainly” be the hottest year globally and the first to exceed by more than 1 .5°C the temperature levels of the pre-industrial era (1850-1900).
« Every year in the last decade has been one of the 10 warmest on record. We are now on the verge of exceeding the 1.5°C level set in the Paris Agreement and the average of the last two years is already above this level,” deplores Samantha Burgess, strategic climate manager at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), in this regard. And to add : “These high global temperatures, combined with record levels of water vapor in the atmosphere in 2024, have led to unprecedented heatwaves and heavy precipitation, harming millions of people” .
-The oceans are at the forefront of global warming. In 2024, the average annual sea surface temperature will reach a record level of 20.87°C, 0.51°C higher than the 1991-2020 average.
According to Copernicus, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, the two main greenhouse gases, continued to rise last year to reach record annual levels, at 422 parts per million (ppm) and 1,897 parts respectively. per billion (ppb).
With MAP
