MANILA, Philippines — The last two years saw average global temperatures exceed a critical warming limit for the first time, Europe’s climate monitor said Friday, as the UN demanded “trail-blazing” climate action.
While this does not mean the internationally-agreed 1.5ºC warming threshold has been permanently breached, the United Nations warned it was in “grave danger.”
“Today’s assessment from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is clear,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said. “Global heating is a cold, hard fact.”
He added: “Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025. There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act – now.”
The WMO said six international datasets all confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, extending a decade-long “extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures.”
The United States became the latest country to report its heat record had been shattered, capping a year marked by devastating tornadoes and hurricanes.
The announcement came just days before president-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to double down on fossil fuel production, was set to take office.
Excess heat is supercharging extreme weather, and 2024 saw countries from Spain to Kenya, the United States and Nepal suffer disasters that cost more than $300 billion by some estimates.
Los Angeles is currently battling deadly wildfires that have destroyed thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.
‘Stark warning’
Another record-breaking year is not anticipated in 2025, as a UN deadline looms for nations to commit to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
“My prediction is it will be the third-warmest year,” said NASA’s top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, citing the US determination that the year has begun with a weak La Niña, a global weather pattern that is expected to bring slight cooling.
The WMO’s analysis of the six datasets showed global average surface temperatures were 1.55ºC above pre-industrial levels.
“This means that we have likely just experienced the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5ºC above the 1850-1900 average,” it said.
Europe’s climate monitor Copernicus, which provided one of the datasets, found that both of the past two years had exceeded the warming limit set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Global temperatures had soared “beyond what modern humans have ever experienced,” it said.
Scientists stressed that the 1.5ºC threshold in the Paris Agreement refers to a sustained rise over decades, offering a glimmer of hope.