The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.
The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather that took lives, demolished buildings and ravaged vital crops. More than 800,000 people were displaced and made homeless, the highest yearly number since records began in 2008.
The report lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region. Heatwaves in Japan left hundreds of thousands of people struck down by heatstroke. Soaring temperatures during heatwaves peaked at 49.9C at Carnarvon in Western Australia, 49.7C in the city of Tabas in Iran, and 48.5C in a nationwide heatwave in Mali.
Record rains in Italy led to floods, landslides and electricity blackouts; torrents destroyed thousands of homes in Senegal; and flash floods in Pakistan and Brazil caused major crop losses.
Storms were also supercharged by global heating in 2024, with an unprecedented six typhoons in under a month hitting the Philippines. Hurricane Helene was the strongest ever recorded to strike the Big Bend region of Florida in the US, while Vietnam was hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, affecting 3.6 million people. Many more unprecedented events will have passed unrecorded.
The world is already deep into the climate crisis, with the WMO report saying that for the first time, the 10 hottest years on record all occurred in the last decade. However, global carbon emissions have continued to rise, which will bring even worse impacts. Experts were particularly critical of the purge of climate scientists and programmes by the US president, Donald Trump, saying that ignoring reality left ordinary people paying the price.
“Leaders must step up – seizing the benefits of cheap, clean renewables for their people and economies – with new national climate plans due this year,” said the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Dr Luke Parsons, of the Nature Conservancy, said: “Every year, we venture further into uncharted territory, with 2024 the hottest year modern human society has ever experienced. Yet the coming decade is expected to be even hotter, pushing us deeper into this unprecedented climate.”
Previous research determining the role of the climate crisis in what are now unnatural disasters has shown that at least 550 heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires had been made significantly more severe or more frequent by global heating.
Dr Brenda Ekwurzel, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, condemned the Trump administration’s deletion of online climate information. “Attempts to hide climate science from the public will not stop us from feeling the dire impacts of climate change,” she said. “This report underscores the urgency of world leaders meeting the moment, not slashing environmental protections and federal disaster aid, sacrificing public health for the fossil fuel industry’s private profit, and gutting agencies that help form the scientific underpinnings of our global climate knowledge.”
“Global warming continues unabated, exactly as predicted correctly since the 1980s, [and] millions of people are increasingly suffering the consequences,” said Prof Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate in Germany. “We can only stop the warming trend by getting out of fossil fuels fast.”
“We have the solutions – but what stops us is the disinformation campaigns and lobby power of the fossil fuel industry,” Rahmstorf added. “Ignoring reality, denying the laws of physics and silencing scientists can only lead to harm, and ordinary people will pay the price for that.”
Dr Davide Faranda, from ClimaMeter, said: “Every fraction of a degree matters. The choices we make today will determine the severity of climate impacts in the years to come.”
The WMO secretary general, Prof Celeste Saulo, said the report was a wake-up call about the rising risks to lives and livelihoods. “In response, WMO and the global community are intensifying efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services to help society be more resilient to extreme weather,” she said. “Only half of all countries have adequate early warning systems – this must change.” She stressed that investment in weather, water and climate services was more important than ever.
The Trump administration has sacked 1300 staff from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s leading weather and climate watchdogs, and 1,000 more are threatened. Experts estimate that every $1 spent on climate resilience saves $13 in damages and clean-up costs.
