“Humanity is responsible for its own destiny”: 2024 was the hottest year on record, exceeding the 1.5°C threshold

A year 2024 in the records. The planet has experienced an average temperature increase of more than 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), scientists declared this Friday, January 10.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said climate change was pushing the planet’s temperature to levels that humans have never been exposed to.“The trajectory is just incredible,”, Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, told Reuters , describing how every month in 2024 was the warmest or second warmest on record since records began.

The average global temperature in 2024 was 1.6°C higher than in the pre-industrial period, the C3S said. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, countries agreed to try to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5°C, which would avoid the worst impacts.

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Carlo Buontempo said rising greenhouse gas emissions meant that target would soon be exceeded, but added that it was not too late for countries to cut emissions quickly to avoid temperatures rising to even higher levels.

“Humanity is responsible for its own destiny”

“We now have the power to change this trajectory”, he said. The effects of climate change are already visible on every continent and affecting every country, rich and poor. However, the political will to reduce emissions is waning in some countries.

“Humanity is responsible for its own destiny. The future is in our hands, swift and decisive action can still change the trajectory of our future climate.”

“Despite all the warnings from scientists, states continue to fail to take responsibility”, lamented Chukwumerije Okereke, professor of global climate governance at the University of Bristol. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere reached a new record of 422 parts per million (ppm) last year, the C3S said.