Fri Jan 10 03:35:04 UTC 2025: ## Two Years of Record-Breaking Heat Push Earth to 1.5°C Warming Limit
**Paris, January 10, 2025** – The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced today that the average global temperature over the past two years has exceeded the critical 1.5°C warming threshold above pre-industrial levels for the first time. While this doesn’t signify a permanent breach of the internationally agreed limit, it serves as a stark warning of the rapidly approaching climate crisis.
2024 was confirmed as the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023’s record and continuing a trend of extreme heat that fueled devastating climate disasters worldwide. These events, ranging from wildfires in California to floods in Europe and Africa, cost an estimated $300 billion in damages. The heat contributed to the death of 1,300 pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Although 2025 isn’t expected to break the record, with climate skeptic Donald Trump assuming the US presidency and a looming deadline for deeper emission cuts, the UK Met Office predicts it will still rank among the three warmest years ever recorded.
Copernicus data, supported by other climate records dating back tens of thousands of years, confirms that the Earth is experiencing its warmest period in millennia. While the 1.5°C threshold is measured over decades, even brief exceedances demonstrate the unprecedented changes caused by human activity. Scientists emphasize the severe consequences of exceeding this limit, with every fraction of a degree leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Record ocean warming in 2024 further exacerbated the situation, increasing evaporation and fueling more powerful storms.
Despite international agreements to transition away from fossil fuels, progress on deeper emissions reductions remains sluggish. Experts like Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warn that the world has experienced “the first taste of a 1.5°C world,” with catastrophic economic and human costs. While the El Niño phenomenon contributed to the record heat, its end in early 2024 did not bring the expected cooling, underscoring the severity of the climate crisis. Copernicus officials stress that swift and decisive action is still crucial to alter the course of future climate change.
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