The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced today that November 2024 was the second-warmest month globally, with average temperatures in November 2024 being 1.62 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, second only to November 2023.In a statement the Copernicus Observatory said that at this stage, it is virtually certain that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, with temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.The observatory added that Antarctic sea ice extent reached its lowest monthly level on record in November, being 10 percent below average, continuing a series of historically large negative declines that have continued throughout 2023 and 2024.November was the 16th month in a 17-month period in which the global average surface air temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, he explained.The findings are based on a massive dataset, including billions of measurements collected from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess said that the 2024 data does not necessarily mean that the Paris Agreement has been violated, but it does suggest that ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever.The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with a goal of 1.5 degrees by the end of this century. However, these targets are based on the global average temperature over 20 or 30 years, rather than annual fluctuations.
