2024 is the hottest year in history

The year 2024 is the hottest in the history of planet Earth, with an average temperature of 15.10ºC. According to the European Union, it was the first time that the global average temperature was 1.5ºC higher than that recorded in the pre-industrial era.

Furthermore, the planet’s average temperature registered an average index 0.72ºC higher than the average of the last 3 decades (from 1991 to 2020). The information had been Poder360 on Saturday (Jan 4, 2025) and was confirmed this Friday (Jan 10) by the European observatory.

The Copernicus Observatory indicated that the average temperature recorded in 2024 represents a value 0.21ºC higher than 2023, which was the hottest year until then. Furthermore, each of the last 10 years has been one of the 10 hottest years in the planet’s history.

The 2024 index is 1.6ºC higher than the temperature estimate for the pre-industrial period, which the observatory designates as 1850 to 1900.

The hottest day in the history of planet Earth was also observed in 2024: on July 22, the global temperature reached 17.16ºC.

Another alarming index highlighted by the Copernicus Observatory is the average temperature in Europe, which reached 10.69ºC, the hottest year in history on the continent. This means an increase of 1.47ºC. With the exception of Oceania and the Arctic, all other continents had their hottest years on record.

The temperature of the ocean water surface also reached worrying levels, according to the observatory. The average was established at 20.87ºC, the highest in history, with an increase of 0.51ºC.

The Copernicus Observatory explained that the world observed a sequence of 13 consecutive months with temperature records, from June 2023 to June 2024. From the 2nd semester onwards, average monthly temperatures were lower than those recorded in 2023.

Samantha Burgess, strategic climate coordinator at ECMWF (acronym for the European Commission of the European Center for Medium-Term Climate Forecasts), warned of the humanitarian consequences that rising temperatures could have.

“High global temperatures, along with record levels of water vapor in the atmosphere in 2024, mean heavy rains and unprecedented heat waves, causing suffering for millions of people”, these.

The level of water vapor in the atmosphere in 2024, according to the Copernicus Observatory, was 5% higher than that recorded in the last 35 years. The high level of humidity increases the probability of extreme rainfall and, combined with the high temperature of the ocean water surface, leads to the formation of storms, causing natural disasters.

Furthermore, the observatory said, high temperatures cause “heat stress” in the human body, when the body reaches exhaustion due to high temperatures. By 2024, the global population will have more days with “strong heat stress” and, in some regions, “extreme heat stress”.

HOTTEST YEAR IN 125 THOUSAND YEARS

Paulo Artaxo, specialist in Physics Applied to Environmental Problems and professor at the Institute of Physics at USP (University of São Paulo), told Poder360 that science shows that 2024 was the hottest year in 125 thousand years. This means, according to him, that the planet’s climate, which has been “reasonably stable over the last few thousand years”, is being transformed into a “territory not yet known” e “extremely dangerous”. This will result in “huge impacts” about ecosystems, the economy, health and social issues, explains the researcher.

The main causes of this constant increase in Earth’s temperature are the burning of fossil fuels, especially oil, and the deforestation of tropical forests. According to Artaxo, who is also a member of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) of the UN (United Nations), current greenhouse gas emissions are in the order of 62 billion tons per year and the exploitation of fossil fuels corresponds to 80% of this.

According to the researcher, the planet is heading towards an average temperature increase of 3.1ºC. In continental areas, such as Brazil, this increase should be between 4.0ºC and 4.5ºC.

“Can you imagine a city like Teresina (PI), Cuiabá (MT), Palmas (TO), where temperatures in summer are normally above 40ºC, when these temperatures reach […] 46ºC, 47ºC, what will the Brazilian population in these regions be like?”, he declared.

The consequences, according to Artaxo, will also affect Brazil’s economy and economic structure itself. The country, in addition to being hot, is becoming drier.

“This compromises the productivity of Brazilian agriculture and could compromise the future of Brazil, if we want to continue with a model based on the production of agricultural commodities. This leads us to have to rethink Brazil, rethink our development model”, these.

The expert explained that science makes it clear that it is, yes, possible to reverse global climate change and stabilize the increase in global temperature at 2ºC, but that this is a “huge challenge” and which depends on public policies in this regard being implemented quickly. To achieve this, two tasks are necessary: ​​end the exploration and use of fossil fuels and end the deforestation of tropical forests.