“We saw extraordinary land, sea surface temperatures, extraordinary ocean heat accompanied by very extreme weather affecting many countries around the world, destroying lives, livelihoods, hopes and dreams,” WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said.
“We saw many climate change impacts retreating sea ice glaciers. It was an extraordinary year.”
The 1.5℃ marker is significant because it was a key goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to ensure that global temperature change does not rise more than this above pre-industrial levels, while striving to hold the overall increase to well below 2℃.
The Paris Agreement is “not yet dead but in grave danger”, the WMO maintained, explaining that the accord’s long-term temperature goals are measured over decades, rather than individual years.
However, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo insisted that “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.
“It is essential to recognize that every fraction of a degree of warming matters.
Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases the impacts on our lives, economies and our planet.”
Amid still raging deadly wildfires in Los Angeles that weather experts including the WMO insist have been exacerbated by climate change – with more days of dry, warm, windy weather on top of rains which boosted vegetation growth – the UN agency said that 2024 capped a decade-long “extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the WMO’s findings as further proof of global warming and urged all governments to deliver new national climate action plans this year to limit long-term global temperature rise to 1.5C – and support the most vulnerable deal with devastating climate impacts.
“Individual years pushing past the 1.5℃ limit do not mean the long-term goal is shot,” Mr. Guterres said.
“It means we need to fight even harder to get on track. Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025,” he said. READ MORE
