Climate Change in 2024 Hit a Warming Mark Scientists Hoped We Would Avoid

During the hottest year on Earth since records began in 1850, temperatures crossed a key threshold, rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Two years ago, at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that global leaders needed to address greenhouse gas emissions to keep air temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the year 2100.

It's only the start of 2025, and we've already crossed that threshold.

According to climate scientists at the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, global temperatures reached the highest levels on record in 2024, rising 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and making the year the hottest since recordkeeping began in 1850. That's a 2.88 degrees Fahrenheit rise globally.

According to a Copernicus report released Friday, the global average temperature ...