Climate Change: 2024 Set to Break Records as World Warms Up
Record-Breaking Temperatures
This year is "virtually certain" to eclipse 2023 as the world’s warmest since records began, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday. The data was released ahead of next week’s U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where countries will try to agree a huge increase in funding to tackle climate change. Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election has dampened expectations for the talks.
Climate Change: The Fundamental Cause
C3S said that from January to October, the average global temperature had been so high that 2024 was sure to be the world’s hottest year – unless the temperature anomaly in the rest of the year plunged to near-zero. "The fundamental, underpinning cause of this year’s record is climate change," C3S Director Carlo Buontempo told Reuters. "The climate is warming, generally. It’s warming in all continents, in all ocean basins. So we are bound to see those records being broken," he said.
Consequences of Climate Change
2024 will also be the first year in which the planet is more than 1.5C hotter than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil, and gas are the main cause of global warming.
Urgent Action Needed
Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at public research university ETH Zurich, said she was not surprised by the milestone, and urged governments at COP29 to agree stronger action to wean their economies off CO2-emitting fossil fuels. "The limits that were set in the Paris agreement are starting to crumble given the too-slow pace of climate action across the world," Seneviratne said.
Beyond the Paris Agreement
Countries agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent global warming surpassing 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), to avoid its worst consequences. The world has not breached that target – which refers to an average global temperature of 1.5C over decades – but C3S now expects the world to exceed the Paris goal around 2030. "It’s basically around the corner now," Buontempo said.
The Consequences of Climate Change
Every fraction of temperature increase fuels extreme weather. In October, catastrophic flash floods killed hundreds of people in Spain, record wildfires tore through Peru, and flooding in Bangladesh destroyed more than 1 million tons of rice, sending food prices skyrocketing. In the U.S., Hurricane Milton was also worsened by human-caused climate change.
The Future of Climate Change
C3S’ records go back to 1940, which are cross-checked with global temperature records going back to 1850.
Conclusion
The science is clear: climate change is real, and its effects are devastating. It is imperative that governments and individuals take immediate and drastic action to reduce our carbon footprint and transition to renewable energy sources. The future of our planet depends on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the cause of global warming?
A: Global warming is primarily caused by human activities that release greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, leading to an increase in the Earth’s average temperature.
Q: What is the Paris Agreement?
A: The Paris Agreement is an international accord aimed at mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Q: What is the current state of climate action?
A: While some progress has been made, the pace of climate action has been slow, and many countries are still far from meeting their commitments under the Paris Agreement.