2024 Confirmed as Hottest Year on Record, Surpassing 1.5°C Threshold
The WMO's climate report highlights accelerating impacts, record greenhouse gas levels, and the urgent need for stronger global action.
- Global temperatures in 2024 averaged 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels, breaking previous records and exceeding the 1.5°C threshold for the first time in a single year.
- Greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, reached their highest levels in 800,000 years, driving ocean warming, glacier loss, and rising sea levels.
- Sea levels rose at a record rate, with the long-term increase doubling since satellite measurements began, while glaciers experienced unprecedented mass loss over the past three years.
- Extreme weather events displaced more than 800,000 people in 2024, the highest annual figure since records began in 2008, and worsened food crises in 18 countries.
- Despite progress in renewable energy adoption, the WMO report warns that current global efforts remain insufficient to mitigate escalating climate risks.