Scientists sounded the alarm long before last year ended that 2024 would become the hottest year on record and almost certainly the first to surpass the 1.5°C limit. Now both of those milestones have been confirmed in official statistical releases from two independent scientific agencies.
Earth’s warming exceeded 1.5°C on an annual basis for the first time in 2024, according to two major climate science agencies. It’s the most potent evidence yet that countries are failing to meet a Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to that level as a decades-long average.
The amount of time left to avoid eclipsing the goal “is now wafer thin,” said Colin Morice, a UK Met Office scientist, in a statement.
