2024 on track to be warmest year on record, reports world meteorological organization at COP-29

The year 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record after an extended streak of exceptionally high monthly global mean temperatures. 

A report released by the World Meteorological Organization, during the ongoing session of the Conference of the Parties, COP-29 said this, adding that the ambitions of the Paris Agreement are “in great peril. The Paris Agreement aims to keep the long-term global average surface temperature increase to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the warming to 1.5 degrees.

   

According to analysis of six



international datasets used by WMO, the January to September global mean surface air temperature was 1.54 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, boosted by a warming El Nino event. The report also noted that 2015-2024 will be the warmest decade on record, with the accelerating loss of ice from glaciers, sea-level rise and ocean heating. 

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said, it is essential to recognize that every fraction of a degree of warming matters, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.