Scientists state: 2024 will be the hottest year on record
9 December 2024 11:49
This year will be the world’s warmest since records began, with extremely high temperatures expected to persist at least through the first few months of 2025. Reuters reports this with reference to the data of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), "Komersant Ukrainian" informs.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, data for January-November confirmed that 2024 will probably be the hottest year on record and the first in which the average global temperature will exceed by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) that recorded in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900.
As you know, the previous hottest year was 2023.
“We are still at near-record high global temperatures, and this is likely to continue for at least the next few months,” Copernicus climate researcher Julien Nicolas told Reuters.
It is worth recalling that extreme weather this year has affected the whole world: severe drought hit Italy and South America, deadly floods in Nepal, Sudan and Europe, heat waves in Mexico, Mali and Saudi Arabia that killed thousands of people, as well as catastrophic cyclones in the United States and the Philippines.
How the world is fighting global warming
The data from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service, as noted by Reuters, came two weeks after the UN climate talks led to a $300 billion agreement to fight climate change. However, the poorest countries called the package insufficient to cover the steep costs of climate disasters.
The main cause of climate change is known to be carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Reducing emissions to net zero-as many governments promise to eventually do-should stop global warming. However, despite these environmental promises, global CO2 emissions are on track to reach record levels this year.
Scientists are also watching to see if the La Niña weather pattern, which involves cooling of the ocean surface, could form in 2025. This could briefly lower global temperatures, although it will not stop the long-term underlying warming trend caused by emissions. The world is currently in neutral conditions after El Niño, the hotter counterpart to La Niña, ended earlier this year.
What is known about the EU’s Copernicus program
Copernicus is a renewed environmental and security research program supported and managed by the European Commission, together with the European Space Agency, EU Member States and EU agencies.
Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space program, which offers information services based on satellite Earth observation data.
Copernicus is operated by the Sentinel family of satellites and supporting missions, as well as by commercial and public satellites.
Copernicus also gathers information from ground stations that transmit data obtained from a variety of sensors on the ground, at sea and in the air.
