2024 poised to be hottest year on record: Copernicus

BRUSSELS -- The year 2024 is on track to become the hottest on record, with annual global temperature projected to be 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.

The C3S said it is now "virtually certain" that 2024 will surpass previous temperature records, as the average temperature anomaly for the remaining months of the year would need to drop to nearly zero to avoid setting a new high.

Data from the agency showed that the global average temperature for the first 10 months of 2024 was 0.71 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 baseline, marking the highest on record for this period.

According to the C3S, October 2024 recorded temperatures 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, marking the 15th in a 16-month period during which the global average surface air temperature surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a critical threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

Given that 2023 saw temperatures 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, C3S projects that the annual temperature in 2024 will be 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and is likely to exceed 1.55 degrees Celsius.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, said the trend underscores "a new milestone in global temperature records," urging for action ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.