By Peter Ngare

2024 has been recorded as the hottest year ever experienced by modern humans. Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) revealed that the average temperature last year was 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, marking a 0.1-degree increase from 2023.

This level of heat breached the internationally agreed 1.5C target for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing misery to millions of people.

The heating is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and scientists are warning that the damage to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate around the world until coal, oil and gas are replaced. Fossil-fuel emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 to have a chance of limiting heating to 1.5C.

The Paris agreement target of 1.5C is measured over a decade or two, so a single year above that level does not mean the target has been missed, but does show the climate emergency continues to intensify. Every year in the past decade has been one of the 10 hottest, in records that go back to 1850.

“These high global temperatures, coupled with record global atmospheric water vapour levels in 2024, meant unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rainfall events, causing misery for millions of people,” Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director at C3S, said.

Tragic events such as the floods in Kenya in May of last year, which claimed over 250 lives, displaced thousands, disrupted educational institutions, and caused significant infrastructural damage, underscore the devastating impacts of climate change. Similar adverse weather occurrences were observed worldwide, including the Valencia floods, hurricanes in the US, typhoons in the Philippines, and drought in the Amazon.