2024 is the first year to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial level, say scientists 

Copernicus Climate Change Service said 2024 was the warmest year on record globally.

Scientists said human-induced climate change remains the primary driver of extreme air and sea surface temperatures; while other factors, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), also contributed to the unusual temperatures observed during the year.

Copernicus Climate Change said a new record high for daily global average temperature was reached on 22 July 2024, at 17.16°C.

"Each month from January to June 2024 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year on record. Each month from July to December, except August, was each the second warmest, after 2023, for the time of year," the body said in a statement.

In 2024, the annual average sea surface temperature (SST) over the extra-polar ocean reached a record high of 20.87°C, 0.51°C above the 1991–2020 average.

Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said: "All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850."

"Humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence," Carlo Buontempo said.

"The future is in our hands - swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate," he said.

Various governments signed the  Paris Agreement in 2015 whose aim was to try and prevent average temperatures exceeding 1.5C.

The climate change agreement came into force on 4 November 2016.