Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — The year 2024 has officially been recorded as the hottest year on record, with earth global average temperatures reaching unprecedented levels.
According to research by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Earth temperatures surpassed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time—a milestone with significant implications for climate change.
“We underestimated just how warm 2024 would be when we made projections earlier in the year,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, on Friday, January 10, 2025, as reported by Detik Net.
Previously, the title of the hottest year was held by 2023, and scientists had anticipated a slight cooling trend for 2024 due to the waning of El Niño conditions by June. However, these predictions fell short.
The El Niño weather pattern, characterized by the warming of surface waters in the central-eastern equatorial Pacific, pushed global temperatures “off the charts” in 2023. This trend continued into 2024, cementing it as the hottest year to date.
Even as equatorial Pacific conditions normalized mid-year, global temperatures remained at historic highs. Over the course of 2024, there were 41 days categorized as posing extreme heat danger worldwide, setting a new record for daily global average temperatures.
Exceed Temperature Threshold
Copernicus reported that no region was spared from the effects of global warming, with every continent—except Antarctica and Australasia—experiencing their warmest year on record. Sea surface temperatures also stayed at record levels from January to June, continuing trends observed in late 2023.
During the latter half of 2024, temperatures reached the second-highest levels ever recorded for that period, trailing only 2023.
The European Earth observation program confirmed that 2024 was the first calendar year in which global average temperatures consistently exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
This critical threshold was established at the COP21 climate summit in 2015, where 196 signatories of the Paris Agreement committed to limiting global warming to below 1.5°C—or well below 2°C—by the end of the century.
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Exceeding the 1.5°C threshold signals a crossing into dangerous territory. Experts warn that surpassing this limit risks triggering irreversible tipping points in Earth’s systems, leading to catastrophic consequences for ecosystems and human societies.
The record-breaking temperatures of 2024 serve as a stark reminder of the urgent need for stronger climate action to mitigate the worsening impacts of global warming.
(Raidi/Agung)
