2024 has been confirmed as the warmest year on record globally, and the first calendar year that the average global temperature exceeded 1.5C above its pre-industrial level.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) underlined human-induced climate change as the primary driver of extreme air and sea surface temperatures; while other factors, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), also contributed to the unusual temperatures observed during the year.

Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S commented: "All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850. Humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence. The future is in our hands, swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.”

The global average temperature of 15.1C was 0.72C above the 1991-2020 average, and 0.12C above 2023, the previous warmest year on record. This is equivalent to 1.6C above an estimate of the 1850-1900 temperature designated to be the pre-industrial level.

Professor Chris Hilson, director of the Centre for Climate and Justice at the University of Reading, said: “We cannot yet definitively say we have surpassed 1.5C for the purposes of the Paris Agreement that sets this as a key temperature goal we should remain within. That would require more than a decade of average global temperatures above this level, and not just a year or two. But we don’t have time to wait for that long-term confirmation. We are already seeing the havoc that 1.5C of warming is wreaking globally with extreme weather events like storms and flooding. Unless governments globally act with real purpose, we are on course for warming of more like 3 to 4 degrees, which will have catastrophic outcomes.”

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