English 
Spanish 
5 min read 
0 comments 
2024 broke all climate records: sea level rose 0,59 cm and 600 extreme events hit the planet
Clear signs of human-induced climate change have reached new levels in 2024, and some consequences will be irreversible for hundreds or thousands of years, according to the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Global State of the Climate 2024 report.
The report also highlights the enormous economic and social impacts resulting from extreme weather events.
The document “The State of the Global Climate 2024” reinforces the warnings already made by Copernicus and other sources about how close we are to reaching the 1,5 degree Celsius limit.
- How to Use a Chainsaw Safely
- South Korea creates super metal that can withstand freezing temperatures of -196°C to extremes of 600°C
- Archaeologists Find 2.000-Year-Old Liquid Wine — With Roman's Ashes Inside
- End of labor shortage in agriculture: China to create 'human robot' capable of working as a farmer
According to the report, the global temperature is between 1,34 and 1,41 degrees Celsius above the average recorded between 1850 and 1900, due to greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of aerosols and other factors.
In any case, we are very close to the 1,5 degree threshold, which already represents a significant increase, bringing serious consequences such as the increase in extreme weather events, the melting of the polar ice caps and irreversible rise in sea levels. This report serves, once again, as an urgent call to action.
In its new report on the state of the global climate, the WMO confirms that last year was the warmest in the entire 175-year period for which observational records exist, being the first year to exceed the average temperature of the pre-industrial period (1,5-1850) by 1900°C.
In addition, the report updates indices related to atmospheric warming at the surface, ocean warming, melting of polar ice caps, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, increasing concentration of greenhouse gases, among other factors.
Extreme weather events
All these indicators point to the increasing difficulty of fulfilling the commitments made in the Paris Agreement. The report particularly emphasizes the importance of strengthening early warning systems in the face of increasingly frequent and destructive extreme weather events, which cause great material and human losses.
All the elements that contribute to these early warning systems—such as atmospheric and hydrological monitoring, meteorological, hydrological and hydraulic forecasting at different time scales, risk assessment, automation of procedures, communication and dissemination of alerts with clear protocols, and training of affected communities and decision-makers—need to be strengthened to minimize the effects of these extreme events, for which a rapid response is essential.
WMO has proven experience in developing and implementing all the essential components for the proper functioning of early warning systems.
Last year broke all climate records and had the highest CO₂ concentration in the last 800 years
The rate at which sea levels are rising has doubled since records began, according to the WMO. In addition to being the hottest year on record, 2024 has broken all sorts of climate records.
More than 600 extreme events were recorded, 151 of them unprecedented, which caused the displacement of 824.500 people—the highest number since 2008, according to the report published this Wednesday by the WMO, an organization linked to the UN.
The report confirms what this institution had already anticipated in January: 2024 was the hottest year on record, with an average temperature 1,55 °C above pre-industrial levels.
This record surpasses the one set just one year earlier in 2023, demonstrating that all the hottest years on record have occurred in the last decade, between 2015 and 2024.
Furthermore, greenhouse gas concentrations have reached their highest level in the last 800 years. To put this into perspective, our species is estimated to have emerged 200 years ago.
600 extreme weather events
The rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since satellite measurements began, rising from 2,1 millimeters per year in the period 1993-2002 to 4,5 millimeters per year between 2015 and 2024. Although a rise of just a few millimeters may seem small, it puts millions of people living in coastal regions, such as cities like Los Angeles, New York, London, Mumbai, Tokyo or Shanghai, at risk.
“Sea level rise will have cascading and compounding impacts,” the report warns. Loss of coastal ecosystems, salinization of groundwater, flooding and damage to infrastructure near the sea will result in “risks to livelihoods, settlements, health, well-being, food security, population displacement, water security and cultural values in the short and long term,” the authors highlight.
It is also accelerating the retreat of glaciers, which have lost more ice mass than ever before in the past three years, threatening the source of drinking water for millions of people around the world.
Our planet is sending out more warning signs
“Our planet is sending more warning signals, but this report shows that it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1,5 degrees Celsius in the long term,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “Leaders must act to achieve this goal, harnessing the benefits of clean, affordable renewable energy for their people and economies, with new national climate plans expected this year,” he added, referring to the report.
Guterres mentions the 1,5 degree Celsius limit, a level that countries around the world have committed to not exceeding in the Paris Agreement.
In this historic pact, the international community pledged to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to two degrees or, ideally, 1,5°C by the end of the century, compared to pre-industrial levels, to avoid climate impacts even more catastrophic than the current ones.
According to the report, the fact that a single year has surpassed this barrier does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached—for that to happen, it would be necessary to calculate an average of 20 to 30 years, the experts explain—but it does represent a significant psychological impact because it is unprecedented.
Heat waves, extreme rainfall and floods, the most frequent events
Of the 616 extreme events recorded worldwide, the majority (137) were heatwaves, followed by extreme rainfall (115) and floods (103). There were also 297 unusual events. These phenomena left 1,1 million injured and 1.700 dead, although the report clarifies that these numbers do not represent an exhaustive survey.
“Another record-breaking year. Global warming continues unabated, exactly as predicted since the 1980s,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Rahmstorf said the only way to stop this crisis is to quickly abandon fossil fuels, emphasizing that “we have the solutions, but we are being held back by disinformation campaigns and fossil fuel lobby groups.”
