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Global warming exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time last year. According to the report published on Friday by the EU climate change service Copernicus, the Earth’s average temperature was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in the years 1850 to 1900. Climate researchers speak of a “warning signal.”
Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo described the development as unbelievable. Every month in 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest month since records began. At the same time, each of the last ten years (2015-2024) was among the ten warmest since records began. Copernicus is a data set from satellites, ships, airplanes, and weather stations worldwide.
Last year’s global average temperature was even 0.12 degrees above that of 2023, the previous warmest year on record. A new record for the hottest day was set on 22 July 2024, with a global temperature of 17.16 degrees. 2024 was also the warmest year measured in Europe.
“The matter is not yet settled”
As part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, governments committed to preventing global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more severe and costly climate disasters. However, this does not mean that the specified limit has been exceeded.
According to Buontempo, the agreement refers to temperature deviations averaged over a period of at least 20 years. However, given rising greenhouse gas emissions, the world is well on its way to missing the Paris target soon.
But it is not too late for countries to cut emissions quickly to prevent further warming to catastrophic levels. “The job is not done yet. We have it in our hands to change the trend from now on.” Niklas Höhne, co-founder of the NewClimate Institute, also saw a “warning signal” in the report’s findings: “We need to do more than we have done so far.”
1.5-degree target “no longer tenable”
The 1.5-degree target is “no longer tenable,” said climate researcher Andreas Fink from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). According to his findings, the technologies for removing CO2 from the atmosphere will also not be able to extract the necessary quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere in the coming decades. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions very quickly. The costs of escalating climate change are significantly higher than turning away from coal, oil, and gas.
Fink said that 2024 showed just how dangerous such a temperature level is, given the extreme weather events last year. He was referring to temperatures above 50 degrees, extreme rainfall, and huge fires.
Climate researchers believe that the main cause of the high temperatures is the high level of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, for example. The climate phenomenon “El Niño” also influenced temperatures.
Record ocean temperatures and heat stress
According to the Copernicus report, the land areas and the oceans outside the polar regions reached a record annual average surface temperature of 20.87 degrees in 2024, which is 0.51 degrees higher than the average from 1991 to 2020. In addition, the highest amount of water vapor in the atmosphere was ever measured. Combined with high sea surface temperatures, this contributed to severe storms, including tropical cyclones.
On the other hand, Copernicus writes that persistent dry periods in several regions favoured forest fires and refers, in particular, to large-scale and long-lasting forest fires in America. The current fierce fires in California are a current example. In addition, the area of the Earth affected by at least “severe” heat stress reached a new record on 10 July, when around 44 percent of the Earth experienced “severe” to “extreme heat stress.”.
- source: ORF.at/Agencies/picture: pixabay.com
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