This year is on track to become the world’s second- or third-warmest year on record surpassed only by 2024’s unprecedented heat according to new data released Tuesday by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
The warning comes just weeks after the COP30 Climate Summit ended without significant commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions, amid strained global politics, weakening climate policies in some countries, and reduced climate ambition from the United States.
C3S says 2024 will likely complete the first-ever three-year period in which global temperatures averaged more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900), the benchmark period used to measure long-term warming driven by widespread fossil fuel use.
“These milestones are not abstract they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at C3S.
Extreme Weather Across the Globe
Throughout the year, severe weather events highlighted the worsening climate crisis.
• Typhoon Kalmaegi claimed more than 200 lives in the Philippines in November.
• Spain experienced its most severe wildfires in 30 years, with scientists confirming that climate change increased the likelihood and intensity of the conditions.
Last year was the hottest year ever recorded globally, and the past decade has been the warmest ten-year stretch since temperature records began, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
While natural cycles cause variation from year to year, scientists agree that the long-term warming trend is undeniable and driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas.
Paris Agreement Goal Slipping Out of Reach
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, countries pledged to limit global warming to 1.5°C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Although the world has not yet officially exceeded that threshold which is measured over decades, not years — the United Nations has warned that meeting the target is no longer realistic without drastically faster emissions cuts.
C3S data, which dates back to 1940 and is cross-checked with global records extending to 1850, continues to reinforce what climate scientists have long cautioned: the planet is warming at a pace that governments are failing to contain.