When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next [2024] will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed.
In 2024, Earth saw the highest average annual surface air temperature ever recorded, outpacing 2023 on an average basis.[2]
19 March: "The climate crisis is the defining challenge that humanity faces and is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis, as witnessed by growing food insecurity and population displacement, and biodiversity loss." —Prof. Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, in State of the Climate 2023.[3][4]
October: "For the first time in human history, the hydrological cycle is out of balance, undermining an equitable and sustainable future for all."[5]
7 April 2025: a study published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science found that the climate extremes of 2023–2024 were exceptional even compared to recent warming trends, with record-breaking global surface air and sea surface temperatures. The research attributes these extremes to a combination of a positive decadal trend in Earth's Energy Imbalance, three consecutive years of La Niña, and a rapid transition to El Niño, resulting in over 75% more heating between 2022 and 2023 than during similar past events. The authors warn that if the current trend in Earth's energy accumulation continues, natural climate fluctuations like ENSO will increasingly produce amplified, record-breaking impacts in the future.[7]
Measurements and statistics
"Vital Signs of the Planet" as presented by NASA on 31 December 2024[8]
5 February: a study published in Nature Climate Change, based on 300 years of ocean mixed-layer temperature records preserved in sclerosponge skeletons, concluded that modern global warming began in the 1860s (over 80 years earlier than indicated by sea surface temperature records) and was already 1.7°C above pre-industrial levels by 2020—a figure 0.5°C higher than IPCC estimates.[10]
The 2024 hurricane season saw an early flareup of activity including the earliest Category 5 storm on record, an unusual mid-season pause, and a final flareup to end the season.[11]
February (reported): a Copernicus Climate Change Service analysis indicated that from February 2023 through January 2024, the running average global average air temperature exceeded 1.5°C for the first time.[12] This single-year breach does not violate the 1.5°C long-term average agreed on in the 2015 Paris Agreement.[12]
13 February: a study published in Current Issues in Tourism concluded that U.S. average ski seasons (incl. snowmaking) decreased from 1960–1979 to 2000–2019 by between 5.5 and 7.1 days per season, with direct economic losses estimated at $252 million annually.[13]
18 March (reported): the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer analyzed NOAA data and concluded that the average global ocean surface temperature reached a record daily high in mid-March 2023, and remained at unprecedented high levels every day since.[14]
21 March: a study published in Communications Earth & Environment concluded that higher temperatures increase inflation persistently over twelve months in both higher- and lower-income countries, with inflation pressures largest at low latitudes and having strong seasonality at high latitudes.[15]
8 May (reported): Ember reported that for the first time, renewable energy generated a 30% of global electricity in 2023.[16]
28 May: a study published by Climate Central, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and World Weather Attribution concluded that over the preceding twelve months, human-caused climate change caused a worldwide average of 26 additional days of extreme heat.[17]
11 June: a study published in Earth System Science Data estimated that total annual anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions increased 40% from 1980 to 2020, exceeding projected levels under all scenarios in the CMIP6 model.[18]
Climate Central applied a hurricane attribution framework from an Environmental Research: Climate paper to conclude that climate change's increase of water temperatures intensified peak wind speeds in all eleven 2024 Atlantic hurricanes.[19]
Scientists in the field of extreme event attribution have concluded that in virtually all countries and territories around the world in a year-long period beginning in May 2024, human-caused global warming has increased the number of days of extreme heat events over long-term norms.[20]
9 July (reported): for the first time, in each month in a 12-month period (through June 2024), Earth's average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline.[23]
21 July: the highest daily global average temperature is recorded at 17.09 °C (62.76 °F), surpassing the previous record of 17.08 °C (62.74 °F) on 6 July 2023.[24]
28 August: a study published in the journal Nature concluded that the June–September 2023 Canadian wildfires caused carbon emissions that exceeded annual fossil fuel emissions of all nations except India, China and the US.[25]
20 November: a study published in Environmental Research: Climate, applied to 2024 Atlantic hurricanes to date, estimated that climate change's increase of water temperatures intensified peak wind speeds in all eleven such hurricanes by 9–28 mph (14–45 km/h), including Helene (16 mph (26 km/h)) and Milton (24 mph (39 km/h)).[19]
30 November: a report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Stepping back from the precipice: Transforming land management to stay within planetary boundaries, estimated an annual land degradation rate of 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi), in addition to previous accumulated land degradation of 15,000,000 square kilometres (5,800,000 sq mi).[26]
July 2025: the International Renewable Energy Agency's Renewable Power Generation Costs 2024 said that on a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) basis, 91% of new renewable utility-scale capacity delivered power at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil fuel-based alternative. New onshore wind projects had an LCOE of $0.034/kWh, solar photovoltaic $0.043/kWh, and hydropower $0.057/kWh.[27]
Natural events and phenomena
January: a study published in Annual Review of Marine Science reported that sea level rise's (SLR's) elevation of coastal water tables and shifting of their salinity landward—whose damage is "largely concealed and imperceptible"—makes potentially 1,546 coastal communities vulnerable to impacts decades before SLR-induced surface inundation.[28]
12 February: a study published by the nonprofit First Street Foundation reported that improvements in air quality brought about by environmental regulation are being partially reversed by a "climate penalty" caused by climate change, especially with increases in PM2.5 particulates caused by increased wildfires.[29]
28 February: a study published in Weather and Climate Dynamics statistically linked recent Arctic ice loss with warmer and drier weather in Europe, enabling "an enhanced predictability of European summer weather at least a winter in advance".[30]
26 March: a study published in Nature concluded that under some circumstances, change in albedo (Earth's surface's reflection of sunlight back into space) resulting from planting more trees can cause a significant "albedo offset" that reduces the benefits of the trees' removal of carbon from the atmosphere.[32]
27 March: a study published in Nature concluded that accelerated melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica has decreased Earth's rotational velocity, affecting Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) adjustments and causing problems for computer networks that rely on UTC.[33]
8 April: recognizing that climate warming causes many meteorites to be lost from the surface by melting into the Antarctic ice sheet, a study in Nature Climate Change concluded that about 5,000 meteorites become inaccessible each year.[34] About 24% are projected to be lost by 2050, potentially rising to ~76% by 2100 under a high-emissions scenario.[34] (Over 60% of meteorite finds on Earth originate from Antarctica.)[34]
11 April: a study published in Science noted that the effect of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) on future atmospheric carbon concentrations has been inadequately studied, and projected that soil acidification associated with nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems will cause release into the atmosphere up to 23 billion tonnes of carbon over the next 30 years.[35]
11 May (reported): Venezuela became the first country in modern times to lose all of its glaciers, with the Humboldt Glacier having shrunk to the point that climate scientists reclassified it as an ice field.[36]
20 May: a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that rushing of seawater beneath grounded ice over considerable distances makes Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica, more vulnerable to melting than previously anticipated, which in turn increases projections of ice mass loss.[37]
For the first time, scientists... have clearly documented current and future drying trends and impacts that reveal a global, existential peril previously shrouded by a fog of scientific uncertainty. (Aridity) and its effects threaten the lives and livelihoods of billions across almost every region of the globe.[39]
—United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification 9 December 2024
13 June: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a notice that El Niño conditions had given way to ENSO-neutral conditions in the preceding month,[40] ending a year-long period during which ocean and air temperatures reached into record-setting territory.[41]
24 June: a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution reported that the frequency of extreme wildfires increased by a factor of 2.2 from 2003 to 2023, with the most recent 7 years including the 6 most extreme.[42]
15 July: noting that global warming-induced melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets has moved mass from polar regions toward the equator to significantly change Earth's shape and increase the length of days (LOD), a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that mass variations at the Earth's surface lengthened days between 0.3–1.0ms/year in the 20th century, and accelerated to about 1.33ms/year in the 21st century.[43] Under a high emissions scenario, LOD could increase to 2.62±0.79ms/year by 2100.[43] LOD variations make precise timekeeping and space navigation more difficult.[43]
25 July: from measurements of CO2 and methane emissions from exposed sediments of Great Salt Lake, a study published in One Earth concluded that such emissions are high enough that they should be accounted for in regional carbon budgets, and warrant efforts to halt and reverse the loss of saline lakes around the world.[44]
9 December: a report from the UNCCD concluded that more than three-quarters of the Earth's land "has become permanently dryer in recent decades", that "drier climates now affecting vast regions across the globe will not return to how they were", and that a quarter of the global population lives in expanding drylands.[39]
December (reported): NOAA's 2024 Arctic Report Card stated that the Arctic tundra region had shifted from being a CO2 sink to being a CO2 source.[45] The region continued to be a methane source.[45]
5 December: a study published in Science attributed 2023's unexpectedly large rise in global average temperature to a "record low planetary albedo" resulting from a continuation of a multi-year trend of diminishing low cloud cover in the northern mid-latitudes and tropics.[46]
20 December: a study published in Science of the Total Environment enumerated motivations for studying the effect of climate change on zoonotic (animal-to-human) disease transmission.[47]
18 September 2025: the World Meteorological Organization's State of Global Water Resources Report 2024 concluded that only one third of river basins had normal hydrological conditions in 2024, and that all glacier regions lost ice for third straight year.[48]
Actions and goal statements
Science and technology
2 January: the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. began operation 15 miles (24 km) off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, initially providing 5 MW from one wind turbine, but planning an eventual 62 turbines capable of powering 400,000 homes and businesses.[49]
11 January: a study in Nature Cities presents results of a Riyadh-based trial of eight urban heat mitigation scenarios, finding large cooling effects with combinations that include reflective rooftop materials, irrigated greenery, and retrofitting.[50][51]
18 January: the first successful test of a solar farm in space—collecting solar power from a photovoltaic cell and beaming energy down to Earth—constituted an early feasibility demonstration.[52]
February: an underwater generator operating on the principle of a kite travels a figure-8 pattern, moving faster than the current that drives it.[53] A 1.2 MW utility-scale generator began providing power to the grid of the Faroe Islands.[53]
9 February: researchers use simulations to develop an early-warning signal for a potential collapse of the AMOC published in Science Advances and suggest it indicates the AMOC is "on route to tipping".[54][55]
5 March: in a non-unanimous vote, the IUGS's Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy voted against declaring the Anthropocene a new geological epoch.[56] The vote leaves open more informally classifying human impacts as a geological event that unfolds gradually over a long period.[56]
March: the largest inventory of methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas production, published in Nature, finds them to be largely concentrated and around three times the national government inventory estimate.[57][58] Methane emissions from U.S. landfills are quantified in Science, with super-emitting point-sources accounting for almost 90% thereof.[59][60]
March (reported inventions): a wind-powered electrodynamic screen (EDS) generates strong electric fields that repel dust and contaminants from the surface of solar panels, thereby increasing the panels' efficiency while avoiding manual cleaning.[61][62] Researchers demonstrate simultaneous radiative cooling and solar power generation from the same area.[63]
April (reported): a new glass-ceramic material placed atop solar panels transforms ultraviolet light into visible light, effectively increasing the amount of usable light from the sun (the material passes visible light, as normal).[64]
April (reported): "rock flour"—rock that has been finely ground by glaciers and having large surface area per unit volume—has been found to enhance "chemical weathering" that removes carbon from air when spread across ground surfaces.[65] A similar sequestration process, using concrete particles 1millimeter in diameter, has also been tested.[66]
2 April: the first outdoor test in the U.S. of marine cloud brightening technology—designed to brighten clouds and reflect sunlight back into space—tested whether a machine could consistently spray the right size salt aerosols through the open air outside of a lab.[67] Local authorities halted the project the following month, citing concerns for public health and safety.[68]
5 June: a study published in Nature introduced a "charge-sorbent" material having reactive hydroxide ions embedded in the pores of an activated carbon material, the ions removing CO2 from the air through bicarbonate formation.[71] After being saturated with CO2, the charge-sorbent material's properties can be renewed at low temperatures 90 to 100 °C (194 to 212 °F).[71]
June (reported): a consortium of maritime experts proposed a fuel use reduction system in which ships coordinate non-conflicting arrival times at ports, to avoid the conventional "sail fast, then wait" practice by cruising at generally slower, fuel-saving speeds.[72]
July (reported): warming climate is found to create glacial meltwater that washes away temporally ordered layers of trapped aerosols that researchers use as an historical record of environmental events.[73] The Ice Memory Foundation plans to store additional ice cores in Antarctica in advance of this impending loss of data.[73]
October: A paper published in arXiv proposing twelve policy recommendations surrounding Energy and Environmental Reporting Obligations; Legal and Regulatory Clarifications; Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms; and Future Far-Reaching Measures beyond Transparency to combat the effects of Artificial Intelligence and data centers on climate change with reference to the shortcomings of the EU AI Act.[74]
November (reported): U.S. government agencies are operating an airborne early warning system for detecting small concentrations of aerosols to detect where other countries might be carrying out geoengineering attempts.[75]Solar radiation modification is thought to have unpredictable effects on climate.[75]
Political, economic, legal, and cultural actions
8 February: climate scientist Michael E. Mann won a $1 million judgment for punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit filed in 2012 against bloggers who attacked his hockey stick graph of global temperature rise, one of the bloggers having called Mann's work "fraudulent".[76]
March (reported): website Realtor.com added property-specific tools describing individual properties' vulnerability to heat, wind, and air quality, publishing current risks and projected risks 30 years into the future.[79]
Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak
● Documents demonstrate for the first time that fossil fuel companies internally do not dispute that they have understood since at least the 1960s that burning fossil fuels causes climate change and then worked for decades to undermine public understanding of this fact and to deny the underlying science.
● Big Oil's deception campaign evolved from explicit denial of the basic science underlying climate change to deception, disinformation, and doublespeak.
—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget[80] 30 April 2024
Highway to climate hell
In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger. But, we are also the solution.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres 5 June 2024[81]
22 March: the Nauta provincial court (Peru) ruled that the Marañón River has "intrinsic" value and possesses the rights to exist, flow, and be free from pollution.[82] The ruling was the first time Peru has legally recognized "rights of nature".[82]
29 March: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in Costa Rica, ruled that the government of Peru is liable for physical and mental harm to people caused by a metallurgical facility's pollution, and ordered the government to provide free medical care and monetary compensation to victims.[83]
9 April: in its first ruling on climate litigation, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland's failure to adequately tackle the climate crisis breached 2000 women plaintiffs' human rights to effective protection from "the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life".[84]
30 April: G7 ministers agreed to end unabated coal power plants by 2035, giving leeway for countries whose power plants are fitted with carbon capture technology.[85]
1 May: a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Juliana v. United States should be dismissed.[86] The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by 21 young people claiming the U.S. government's energy policies violate their rights to be protected from climate change, more specifically, violating their rights to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.[86]
29 May: a study published in Cell Reports Sustainability estimated 2022 climate and health benefits of using wind and solar rather than fossil fuels to be $143/MWh (wind) and $100/MWh (solar).[88] The study estimated $249 billion of climate and air quality benefits in the U.S. from 2019-2022.[88]
30 May: Vermont became the first U.S. state to enact a law, the Climate Superfund Act, requiring the state to charge fossil fuel companies for climate impacts of their fossil fuel emissions.[89]
!["Vital Signs of the Planet" as presented by NASA on 31 December 2024[8]](File:20241231_Vital_signs_of_the_planet_-_NASA_-_climate_change.png)
