‘Must exit road to ruin’: Climate change brought extreme weather, heat in 2024, says UN
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The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024, says the UN.
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GENEVA – Climate change sparked a trail of extreme weather and record heat in 2024, the UN said on Dec 30, urging the world to pull back from the “road to ruin”.
The outgoing year is set to be the warmest ever recorded, the UN’s weather and climate agency said, capping a decade of unprecedented heat.
Meanwhile emissions of greenhouse gases grew to new record highs
“Climate change plays out before our eyes on an almost daily basis in the form of increased occurrence and impact of extreme weather events,” WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said.
“This year we saw record-breaking rainfall and flooding events, and terrible loss of life in so many countries, causing heartbreak to communities on every continent.
“Tropical cyclones caused a terrible human and economic toll, most recently in the French overseas department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.”
Professor Saulo added: “Intense heat scorched dozens of countries, with temperatures topping 50 deg C on a number of occasions. Wildfires wreaked devastation.”
The 2015 Paris climate accords
In November, the WMO said the January to September mean surface air temperature was 1.54 deg C above the pre-industrial average measured between 1850 and 1900.
That puts 2024 comfortably on course to surpass the record set in 2023
In 2023, temperatures were 1.45 deg C hotter than before the industrial revolution, when humanity started burning large amounts of fossil fuels.
The WMO is set to publish the consolidated global temperature figure for 2024 in January, with its full State Of The Global Climate 2024 report to follow in March.
In his New Year message, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres reflected on the record temperatures witnessed over the past decade.
“Today, I can officially report that we have just endured a decade of deadly heat. The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024,” he said.
“This is climate breakdown in real time.
“We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose,” he said.
“In 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by dramatically slashing emissions, and supporting the transition to a renewable future.
“It is essential, and it is possible.” AFP
