Record heat pushed 2024 above global warming threshold of 1.5°C

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.