Global Temperature hits alarming 1.5°C threshold; 2024 hottest year on record

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2024 is the warmest year on record with a global average surface temperature at 1.55 °C  above the 1850-1900 average.

According to the WMO, the global average surface temperature was 1.55 °C (with a margin of uncertainty of ± 0.13 °C) above the 1850-1900 average, according to WMO’s consolidated analysis of the six datasets.

This means that the world has likely just experienced the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average.

The Paris Agreement in 2016 set a goal to limit the global temperature rises only up to 1.5°C from the pre-industrial era. The year 2023 was recorded to be 1.45°C warmer than pre-industrial times, driven by record-high greenhouse gas emissions.

The datasets are from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Japan Meteorological Agency, NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the UK’s Met Office in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (HadCRUT), and Berkeley Earth.

“Climate history is playing out before our eyes. We’ve had not just one or two record-breaking years, but a full ten-year series. This has been accompanied by devastating and extreme weather, rising sea levels and melting ice, all powered by record-breaking greenhouse gas levels due to human activities,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

There is a margin of uncertainty in all temperature assessments. All six datasets place 2024 as the warmest year on record and all highlight the recent rate of warming. However, not all show a temperature anomaly above 1.5 °C due to differing methodologies.

A separate study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences found that ocean warming in 2024 played a key role in the record high temperatures.

The ocean is the warmest it has ever been as recorded by humans, not only at the surface but also for the upper 2000 meters, according to a study led by Prof. Lijing Cheng with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Today’s assessment from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) proves yet again – global heating is a cold, hard fact,” said UN Secretary-General Antóno Guterres.

Mr Guterres called on governments to deliver new national climate action plans this year to limit long-term global temperature rise to 1.5°C, and support the most vulnerable deal with devastating climate impacts.