Temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 were the highest on record, scientists found, creating a year-long stretch in which the Earth was 1.64 degrees hotter than in preindustrial times.
Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which analysed the data, said the results were not a statistical oddity but a “large and continuing shift” in the climate. As temperatures in some months had “relatively small margins” above 1.5 degrees, the scientists said, data sets from other climate agencies may not confirm the 12-month temperature streak.
Some ecosystems are more vulnerable than others. In its latest review of the science, the IPCC found that 1.5C of warming will kill off 70 to 90 per cent of tropical coral reefs, while warming of 2 degrees will wipe them out almost entirely.