2024 set to be warmest year on record: European climate agency

New Delhi: The year 2024 is set to be the warmest on record and the first with an average temperature above 1.5 degrees Celsius, European climate agency Copernicus said on Monday.

Also, November 2024 became the second-warmest (after November 2023) with an average surface air temperature of 14.10 degrees Celsius -- 0.73 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 average for the month.

The month marked another milestone in global warming, recording a temperature 1.62 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

It also became the 16th month in the past 17 months where global temperatures exceeded the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels, the agency said.

According to the India Meteorological Department, India experienced the second warmest November since 1901, with the average maximum temperature clocking 29.37 degrees Celsius -- 0.62 degree above normal.

For the year so far (January to November), the global average temperature anomaly stands at 0.72 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, making it the highest on record for this period and 0.14 degrees Celsius warmer than the corresponding period in 2023.

The European climate agency said it is almost certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record, with the annual temperature exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 2023, the hottest year on record so far, was 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for November 2024 were also the second-highest on record for the month, at 20.58 degrees Celsius, just 0.13 degrees Celsius below the November 2023 record.

While the equatorial eastern and central Pacific moved towards neutral or La Nina conditions, sea surface temperatures remained unusually high across many ocean regions, Copernicus said.

Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said: "With Copernicus data in from the penultimate month of the year, we can now confirm with virtual certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first calendar year above 1.5 degrees Celsius. This does not mean the Paris Agreement has been breached, but it underscores the urgent need for ambitious climate action.” The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. A permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit refers to long-term warming over a 20 or 30-year period. Earth's global surface temperature has already increased by around 1.3 degrees Celsius compared to the average in 1850-1900 due to the rapidly increasing concentration of greenhouse gases -- primarily carbon dioxide and methane -- in the atmosphere.

This warming is considered the reason behind record droughts, wildfires and floods worldwide.