The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has sounded the alarm, declaring 2024 “virtually certain” to surpass 2023 as the world’s warmest year since records began.
This dire prediction comes ahead of the UN COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where nations will convene to discuss crucial funding increases to combat climate change.
However, the recent U.S. presidential election outcome, with Donald Trump’s victory, has tempered expectations for meaningful progress at the summit. The COP29 talks aim to secure commitments from countries to reduce their reliance on CO2-emitting fossil fuels and transition to cleaner energy sources.
According to C3S Director Carlo Buontempo, “The fundamental, underlying cause of this year’s record is climate change. The climate is warm, generally. It’s warming on all continents, in all ocean basins. So we are bound to see these records being broken.” Buontempo’s warning is echoed by climate scientist Sonia Seneviratne, who notes, “The limits set in the Paris Agreement are starting to crumble due to the too-slow pace of climate action across the world.”
The consequences of inaction are already being felt. October saw devastating flash floods in Spain, record wildfires in Peru, and flooding in Bangladesh that destroyed over one million tonnes of rice, sending food prices soaring. In the U.S., Hurricane Milton’s impact was exacerbated by human-induced climate change.
As the climate crisis deepens, the need for collective action and meaningful commitments from world leaders becomes increasingly urgent.
