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2024 in climate change

  • 21 min read
  • 7 chapters

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Through Climate change, Water cycle and Inflation

Summaries

  • 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.
  • October: "For the first time in human history, the hydrological cycle is out of balance, undermining an equitable and sustainable future for all."
  • 12 November: At the COP29 conference, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres described 2024 as a "master class in climate destruction.
  • 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.

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