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, locking in more heat for the future, the World Meteorological Organization said.
“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.
“Intense heat scorched dozens of countries, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) on a number of occasions. Wildfires wreaked devastation.”
‘Climate breakdown’
The 2015 Paris climate accords aimed to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and to 1.5C if possible.
In November, the WMO said the January-September mean surface air temperature was 1.54C above the pre-industrial average measured between 1850 and 1900.
That puts 2024 comfortably on course to surpass the record set in 2023.
