The latest projections of 2024 as the warmest year on record are deeply concerning, showing the urgent reality of global climate change. This year’s intense heat and destructive weather events, including deadly storms and record-breaking heatwaves, underscore the escalating impacts of human-caused global warming. These changes are largely due to the continuous rise of greenhouse gases, with a contributing boost from the El Niño effect—a natural climate pattern that temporarily warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and raises atmospheric heat.

The anticipated 1.55°C rise above pre-industrial levels in 2024 is symbolic because it approaches the critical threshold set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, in which nearly 200 countries pledged to keep long-term global temperature rise within 1.5°C. While individual years surpassing this limit don’t mean the Paris goal has been definitively broken (as it uses an averaged 20-year period), each annual breach is a stark reminder of how close we are to potentially irreversible climate impacts.

The role of El Niño, which naturally adds warmth to the atmosphere, complicates this warming. While scientists expect its cooler counterpart, La Niña, to potentially develop in the near future, any cooling effect may be marginal and temporary given the high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to climate experts like Professor Ed Hawkins, rising temperatures are likely to make extreme weather events, such as more intense storms, prolonged heatwaves, and severe rainfall, increasingly common worldwide.

Next week’s COP29 conference in Azerbaijan will be another urgent call for global climate action, with a heightened focus on reaching net-zero emissions to stabilize temperatures and mitigate climate risks. As climate change continues to intensify, swift and concerted action is essential to reduce emissions, limit warming, and protect both ecosystems and communities from the growing threats posed by a warming planet.