The year 2024 was the warmest in the history of measurements – the average global temperature was for the first time more than 1.5 degrees higher than pre-industrial times

Year 2024 was the warmest year in recorded history worldwide. This is confirmed by the report published by the EU’s Copernicus climate service, which compiles the year’s global climate statistics.

“In a climatic sense, a year of many records. The year was the warmest in the history of measurements, and it was already the second warmest year on record in a row”, Director of the Department of the Finnish Meteorological Institute Hannele Korhonen described at a press conference on Thursday.

The past year was also the first calendar year when the global average temperature exceeded the pre-industrial level by 1.5 degrees. The measurement history stretches back to 1850.

“But it’s good to note that when we talk about the 1.5 degree limit mentioned in the Paris agreements, it’s a so-called climate limit, which hasn’t been breached yet,” Korhonen pointed out.

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, natural climate variability, for example the El Nino phenomenon, increased the exceptional temperatures observed during 2024. Therefore, the 1.5 degree limit recorded in the Paris climate agreement is not considered to have been exceeded in a climate sense.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute reminds that human-caused climate change is estimated to have already warmed the planet by 1.3 degrees and is still the most significant cause of extreme air and sea surface temperatures.

In the Paris climate agreement in 2015, a recommended limit of 1.5 degrees was set, at which it would be good to stop global warming in order to avoid its worst effects.

Copernicus climate service already warned in November on the eve of the UN COP29 climate conference in Baku, that 2024 was almost certainly going to be the hottest in the recorded history of the planet.

Each of the last ten years (2015–2024) has been one of the ten warmest years in the measurement history.

According to Copernicus, the global average temperature in 2024 was 15.10 degrees, which is 0.72 degrees higher than the average of the climatic reference period, i.e. 1991-2020.

The average temperature in 2024 was 0.12 degrees higher than in 2023, which was previously the warmest year on record. This corresponds to an increase of 1.60 degrees in relation to the estimated pre-industrial, i.e. 1850–1900, level.

In Europe, 2024 was also the warmest year on record. The average temperature in Europe last year was 10.69 degrees, which is 1.47 degrees higher than the average of the climatic reference period and 0.28 degrees higher than the previous record year 2020.

In the Global Climate Highlights 2024 report published by Copernicus, climate statistics have been compiled, which, in addition to the temperature rise, tell about, for example, the warming of the seas, the reduction of sea ice, the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, as well as heat waves and heavy rains.

in Finland the year 2024 was the Meteorological Institute by warmer than usual. The year was also the fourth warmest in the measurement history.

In northern Lapland and the southern part of the country, the year was exceptionally warm in many places. In a large part of the country, the annual rainfall was higher than usual.

“We’ve had the warmest year of all in 2020, and we missed it by about 0.8 degrees,” meteorologist Pauli Jokinen told the Meteorological Institute’s press conference on Thursday.

“Four of the ten warmest years in Finland have been from the last ten years,” Jokinen added.

Climate change made Helsinki about 2.1 degrees warmer from 2024 than it would have been without the effect of climate change. The probability of such a warm year in the current climate is about 140 times compared to a situation where there would be no climate change. The calculations are based on a peer review by researchers from the Institute of Meteorology and the University of Helsinki to the method.