Global temperatures continued to rise in 2024 as the UN chief warned of a “climate breakdown”.
The world experienced its hottest year on record and Australia its second hottest in 2024, with the average global temperature reaching 1.6 degrees above the pre-industrial era years before scientists expected to see such an increase.
“It’s likely the total number of people killed in extreme weather events intensified by climate change this year is in the tens, or hundreds of thousands,” saidIt found that climate change added 41 days of dangerously high temperatures last year, including a 50-degree day leading to a surge in hospitalisations in Mali, and contributed to record-breaking floods in several countries and severe drought across South America.
Howden said a step-change in global average temperatures since mid-2023 had become a focus for research around the world. The cause is likely to be complicated, but one culprit might be a reduction in pollution from shipping due to new regulations outlawing dirtier fuels.Until the new regulations came in, exhaust from shipping contained particles around which low-level clouds formed, shading the sea and reflecting radiant heat back into space.
“My expectation would be temperatures similar to 2023 on average across 2025, so probably not record-breaking,” said Howden. Emissions from Europe and the US have trended down in recent years, while emerging economies such as India have increased emissions – as allowed for in the Paris Agreement, which acknowledged that most greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere had been emitted by advanced economies as they industrialised.
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