2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year on record, EU global warming monitor says

Nov. 7 (UPI)— This year is “virtually certain” to be the hottest on record, according to the European Union’s global warming monitor, which says 2024 could also be the first year with annual temperatures exceeding pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Gradepublished on Wednesday, comes from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service ahead of next week’s UN climate change conference, commonly known as COP29.

The report said the average global temperature in the first 10 months of the year was 0.71 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average and 0.16 degrees Celsius higher than the same period last year.

According to him, in order for 2024 not to become the hottest year on record, the average global temperature must fall to almost zero.

It is also “virtually certain” that the annual temperature rise this year will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the threshold that 196 countries pledged to limit global temperature rise in the December 2015 Paris Agreement.

According to UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeA rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could result in much more severe climate change events, including more frequent and severe droughts, heat waves and rainfall.

“This marks a new milestone in world temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise the ambitions of the upcoming COP29 climate change conference,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. statement.

European temperatures were above average across almost the entire continent, the European Union monitor said, adding that outside Europe, temperatures were above average in northern Canada and well above average in the central and western United States, northern Tibet, Japan and Australia. .

The report also found that Arctic sea ice reached its fourth-highest monthly value in October, while Antarctic sea ice was the second-highest for the month.