It is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the world’s warmest year, according to projections by the European climate service.
The phenomenon
The scientists found global temperatures for the past 12 months were 1.62C greater than the 1850-1900 average, when we started to burn vast volumes of coal, oil and gas. In their monthly climate bulletin, they said October 2024 was the second-warmest October on record, behind only October 2023, with temperatures 1.65C greater than preindustrial levels. It was the 15th month in the past 16 to be higher than the 1.5C mark. World leaders promised to stop the planet from heating 1.5C by the end of the century but we are on track to heat it by roughly double that.
The causes
These high temperatures are mainly down to climate change, with smaller contributions from natural factors such as the El Niño weather pattern. It began in mid-2023 and ended around April 2024, but temperatures have remained stubbornly high since.
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