World Temperatures Overshoot 1.5C Paris Deal Limit for First Time

Data shows 2024 was hottest year on record as climate crisis worsens

- Damian Carrington

Climate breakdown drove the annual global temperature above the internationally agreed 1.5C limit for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing "misery to millions of people".

The average temperature in 2024 was 1.6C above preindustrial levels, data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows. That is a jump of 0.1C from 2023, which was also a record hot year and represents levels of heat never experienced by modern humans.

The heating is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and the damage to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate around the world until coal, oil and gas are replaced.

The Paris agreement target of 1.5C is measured over a decade or two, so a single year above that level does not mean the target has been missed, but it does show the climate emergency continues to intensify. Every year in the past decade has been one of the 10 hottest in records that go back to 1850.

The C3S data also shows that a record 44% of the planet was affected by strong to extreme heat stress on 10 July 2024, and that the hottest day in recorded history struck shortly afterwards on 22 July.

"There's now an extremely high likelihood that we will overshoot the long-term average of 1.5C in the Paris agreement limit," said Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director at C3S.