'Decade of deadly heat' capped off as 2024 tops charts as hottest year on record

UN chief Antonio Guterres warns that 'we must exit this road to ruin'

Climate change added 41 days of extreme heat in 2024. AFP

With 2024 coming to a close as the hottest year on record, the year caps off what United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called a decade of deadly heat.

"The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024. This is climate breakdown in real time," Mr Guterres said in his new year address. The World Meteorological Organisation says the last 12 months have been the hottest since records began, and is set to publish final consolidated global temperature figures for 2024 in January, with the full state of the global climate report for the year to be released in March.

Pushing past Paris Agreement

In November, the WMO reported that the average surface air temperature from January to September was 1.54°C higher than the pre-industrial average. Passing the 1.5°C global warming limit set in 2015 under the Paris climate agreement.

“This year we saw record-breaking rainfall and flooding events and terrible loss of life in so many countries, causing heartbreak to communities on every continent," said WMO secretary general Celeste Saulo. "Tropical cyclones caused a terrible human and economic toll, most recently in the French overseas department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean."

A report from World Weather Attribution and Climate Central released on Friday shows that climate change worsened 26 out of 29 weather events studied – killing at least 3,700 people and displacing millions. The report indicates that climate change added 41 days of extreme heat in 2024, negatively affecting human health and ecosystems.

Charting a way forward

The WMO is set to mark its 75th anniversary in 2025, and Ms Saulo said the message of the agency will be that "if we want a safer planet, we must act now. It’s our responsibility. It’s a common responsibility, a global responsibility".

Mr Guterres has called on countries to put the world on a safer path in 2025 by dramatically slashing emissions and supporting the transition to a renewable future. "We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose," he said.

Looking into 2025, the WMO has said there will be a strong focus on the cryosphere – the frozen parts of the Earth including sea ice, ice sheets and frozen ground – as it is the international year of glaciers’ preservation.

Dr Susana Hancock, global mountains director at the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, previously told The National: "1.5°C really needs to be a hard limit, and it's not an arbitrary number. It is based on science, and what we're seeing in the Arctic and the cryosphere. For the glaciated cold regions of the world, mountains, and the Himalayas, the Andes, the Alps, 1.5°C isn't safe."

Nations at risk due to climate change – in pictures

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  Internally displaced children Ali and Osman Abdulahi stand near carcasses of their family's livestock, killed by severe drought near Dollow, Somalia. Reuters

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  Quick distribution of climate funds agreed at Cop28 will help devastated populations get back on their feet, Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Salah Jama has said. Reuters

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  Commuters ride on rickshaws on a flooded road after heavy rains in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reuters

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  Cyclone Mocha makes landfall near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. A rise in extreme weather events around the world has been blamed on global warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases. EPA

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  Commuters stand on a flyover, on a flooded motorway near Rampur, in India's Uttar Pradesh state, in 2021. AFP

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  Monsoon floods and landslides killed about 100 people in Nepal and India earlier this year. AFP

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  A man walks past a car swept by floodwaters in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2021. AFP

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  Flooding in Kogi, Nigeria, in October 2022. AP

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  A landslide engulfs Nyamukubi village, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. AFP

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  A landslide in the Mont Ngafula district of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. AFP

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  Aid workers crossing flooded areas in Bundibugyo, Uganda. Twitter/UgandaRedCross

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  Villagers try to pull up a minibus in which 14 bodies were retrieved, in the river Nabuyonga in eastern Uganda, after flash floods. AFP