WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The world is experiencing unprecedented warming with 2024 poised to become the hottest year on record, surpassing the previous record in 2023, according to new data released by the World Meteorological Organization.
'Humanity's torching the planet and paying the price,' warned UN Secretary-General António Guterres responding to WMO's latest global temperature analysis covering January to September 2024.
WMO's analysis, based on six international datasets, reveals a concerning trajectory of rising temperatures. While the report highlights some success stories from countries like the Seychelles, Mauritius, Laos and Ireland in developing effective climate services, evidence reveals that the climate crisis is escalating globally.
October 2024 marked the second warmest October on record following October last year, according to the ERA5 dataset from European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
This alarming trend coincides with increasing-related disasters. Between 2020 and mid-2024, heat-related hazards emerged as the deadliest weather threat, accounting for 57 percent of reported weather, climate, and water-related deaths globally.
The WMO report comes a few days ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.
Leaders arriving in Baku for COP29 face pressures to deliver on multiple fronts. 'Leaders must arrive in Baku with ambitions that match the urgency and scale of the challenge,' Guterres said, while calling for new national climate action plans aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
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