2024 warmest in 175 years, global CO2 concentration highest in 0.8mn years : WMO report

Anthropogenic activities alone have pushed upto 79 per cent increase in CO2 concentration over the past decade, the report highlighted. During 2014 0 2023, nearly 48 per cent of the total emissions from anthropogenic activities remain trapped within the atmosphere, driving up the atmospheric concentration. Ocean carbon sink and the land carbon sink accounted for 26 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

2024 set an all-time temperature record in 175 years, the WMO said. In 2024, the average global near-surface temperatures were 1.55 degrees Celsius above normal in 175 years.

” Each of the past years during 2015 – 2024, were individually the warmest years on record,” the WMO said.

The WMO report has enlisted few other anthropogenic factors that may have contributed positively in pushing the mean surface temperatures, globally. Some of these include the early onset of the solar cycle 25 in 2020, the impact of the implementation of International Maritime Organization rules pertaining to shipping fuel sulfur content, the decadal fall in the aerosol emission from east Asia among others.

Similar to near-surface temperature, the ocean heat, too, was at record high.

The rate of ocean warming over the past two decades is more than twice than what was observed during 1960 – 2005. The 2024 ocean heat was highest in 65 years, the WMO report said.

According to the WMO, the sea level rise, since 1993, has shown a dramatic rise with 2024 global mean sea levels touching record high since data gathering using satellites started in 1993.

With such enhanced warming, the global glacier mass has undergone record melting. The glacial mass lost between 2021-2022 and 2023-2024 has been the highest on record. Likewise, the Arctic sea ice extent was the 7th lowest since 1979.