The World Meteorological Organization has released its State of the Climate 2024 report, which analyzes last year’s climate and confirms that 2024 was marked not only by record temperatures, but also by enormous economic and social upheaval caused by extreme weather events. “The clear signs of human-induced climate change have reached new heights,” the organization commented in a note, “with some consequences irreversible within hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”
KeypointsoftheStateoftheClimatein2024report:
Leading indicators of climate change have once again reached record levels;
Long-term warming (averaged over decades) remains below 1.5°C;
Sealevel rise and ocean warming will be irreversible for hundreds of years;
Record concentrations of green housegases, combined with El Niño and other factors, resulted in the record heat of 2024;
Early warnings and climate services are critical to protect communities and economies.
“Our planet is issuing more distress signals — but this report shows that limiting long-term global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible. Leaders must step up to make it happen – seizing the benefits of cheap, clean renewables for their people and economies – with new National climate plans due this year”, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Highlights from the State of the Climate Report
The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate report confirms an alarming fact: 2024 is likely to be the first calendar year in which the global average temperature has exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5°C, with an estimated 1.55 ± 0.13°C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year on record in 175 years of observations, a record that does not come unexpectedly but marks a new tipping point in the climate crisis.
WMO analyses highlight unmistakable signs of global warming. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have reached levels not seen in 800,000 years, while every single year of the last decade has been warmer than the previous one. The oceans, which absorb most of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, continue to set record after record for their heat content: the past eight years have been the warmest ever measured for the planet’s waters.
The polar ice caps and glaciers are also undergoing unprecedented transformations. For the past 18 years, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice has been lower each time than any previous measurement. For Antarctica, the situation is no better: the past three years have seen the three lowest values ever observed. Ice mass loss has reached extreme levels, with the period 2022-2024 marking the worst three-year contraction ever documented.
Sea level rise is another phenomenon that is accelerating at an alarming rate. Since satellite measurements began, the rate at which the oceans are expanding has virtually doubled, with devastating consequences for coastal communities and ecosystems. These data, combined with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events, clearly show that climate change is not a problem of the future, but a crisis unfolding now, before our eyes.
“While a single year above 1.5 °C of warming does not indicate that the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement are out of reach, it is a wake-up call that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and to the planet,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
The World Meteorological Organization report points out that long-term global warming is estimated to be between 1.34 and 1.41 °C compared to the pre- industrial period 1850-1900, and stresses that every fraction of a degree of temperature increase matters because it increases the risks and costs to society.
The record temperatures recorded in 2023 and exceeded in 2024 were mainly caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions and a shift from a La Niña phase, which tends to cool the climate, to an El Niño phase, which warms it. Other factors, such as changes in the solar cycle, a major volcanic eruption, and a reduction in cooling aerosols, may have contributed to the unexpected rise in temperatures.
But temperatures are only one part of a much more complex picture. In 2024, the oceans continued to warm, sea levels to rise, and the icy parts of the Earth’s surface, known as the cryosphere, to melt at an alarming rate: glaciers continue to retreat and the extent of Antarctic sea ice reached the second lowest value ever recorded. Meanwhile, extreme weather events continue to cause severe consequences around the world.
In 2024 tropical cyclones, floods, droughts and other natural disasters caused the highest number of new displacements in 16 years, worsening crises food and generating huge economic losses. Faced with this reality, the WMO and the global community are stepping up efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services, with the goal of improving societies’ resilience to extreme events. Despite progress, much remains to be done: only half of the world’s countries have adequate warning systems in place, a situation that must change quickly.
Investment in weather, water and climate services is crucial to meeting future challenges and building safer and more resilient communities, experts point out. The report, based on scientific contributions from national meteorological and hydrological services, WMO regional climate centers, UN partners and dozens of experts, includes insights on monitoring global temperatures against the Paris Agreement targets and analysis of temperature anomalies recorded in 2023 and 2024. It also features supplements on climate services and extreme weather events.
