2024: Record summer and heat waves - is the end of our climate close?

2024: Record summer and heat waves - is the end of our climate close?

The alarming numbers are there: 2024 was the hottest year since the beginning of the records in 1850, as the Copernicus climate wall service confirmed. The global average temperature for the first time exceeds the pre -industrial level by 1.6 degrees, which means that global warming progresses drastically. According to current data from the straw observation program, the average temperature 2024 was 15.10 ° C, which is 0.12 ° C above the previous record of 2023. This worrying scenario actually started a few years ago to develop into a catastrophic trend, as the World Organization for Meteorology (WMO) emphasizes and describes the worrying climate developments worldwide.

unsustainable temperatures and their consequences

climate change shows no signs of slowing down. "Every year of the last decade, one of the ten warmest has been since the beginning of the records," said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus climate change. According to these reports, the extremely high global temperatures in 2024 led to unforeseen heat waves, heavy rains and other extreme weather events. The record value of the atmospheric water vapor is also particularly striking: it was around 5 % above the average of the past decade. This increases the risk of catastrophic weather conditions that bring millions of people worldwide.

The climate economist Sigrid Stagl, who demands a quick action, expressed the urgency of the situation: "The 1.5-degree goal is not dead, but you can't lie in your pocket." In order to do justice to the climate goals, annual declines of greenhouse gas emissions are necessary by 10 %. She particularly criticized the family bonus, the deletion of which she sees as a more effective measure to reduce CO₂ emissions. This shows that specific measures to combat the climate crisis are also urgently required in Austria, as is already in the details of and tagesschau.de