Below is some of the text from a news statement accompanying WMO's global climate report for 2024 published March 19.
WMO CLIMATE REPORT FOR 2024
"The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, with some of the consequences being irreversible over hundreds if not thousands of years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which also underlined the massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather.
Key messages
"Key climate change indicators again reach record levels
"Long-term warming (averaged over decades) remains below 1.5°C
"Sea-level rise and ocean warming irreversible for hundreds of years
"Record greenhouse gas concentrations combined with El Niño and other factors to drive 2024 record heat
"Early warnings and climate services are vital to protect communities and economies
"WMO’s State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.
"WMO’s flagship report showed that:
"Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.
"Globally each of the past ten years were individually the ten warmest years on record.
"Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat content.
"The 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents on record were all in the past 18 years.
"The three lowest Antarctic ice extents were in the past three years.
"The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years.
"The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.
Key Indicators
"Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, as well as methane and nitrous oxide, are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.
"Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2023 (the last year for which consolidated global annual figures are available) were 420.0 ± 0.1 parts per million (ppm), 2.3 ppm more than 2022 and 151% of the pre-industrial level (in 1750). 420 ppm corresponds to 3,276 Gt – or 3.276 trillion tonnes of CO₂ in the atmosphere
".Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of these three main greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2024. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for generations, trapping heat.
Global Mean Near-surface Temperature
"In addition to 2024 setting a new record, each of the past ten years, 2015-2024, were individually the ten warmest years on record.The record temperature in 2024 was boosted by a strong El Niño which peaked at the start of the year. In every month between June 2023 and December 2024, monthly average global temperatures exceeded all monthly records prior to 2023.
"Record levels of greenhouse gases were the primary driver, with the shift to El Niño playing a lesser role.
Ocean Heat Content
"Around 90% of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases in the Earth system is stored in the ocean.
"In 2024, ocean heat content reached its highest level in the 65-year observational record. Each of the past eight years has set a new record. The rate of ocean warming over the past two decades, 2005-2024, is more than twice that in the period 1960-2005.
"Ocean warming leads to degradation of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and reduction of the ocean carbon sink. It fuels tropical storms and contributes to sea-level rise. It is irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales.
"Climate projections show that ocean warming will continue for at least the rest of the 21st century, even for low carbon emission scenarios."
