Sir David King, Chair and Founder of CCAG, said:
“The recent reports that 2024 was the first year to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial global temperature levels should come as no surprise. We already knew that 2023 had broken all previous records, and this latest data underscores the very real threat to our planet.
"It’s important that we not only consider the impact this temperature rise will have in the next 50 or 100 years, but look at the effects today. In the last year, we’ve seen record-breaking rainfall in central Europe; immense damages from floods in southern Spain, Brazil and Kenya, and forest fires in northern Europe. India hit 48.9°C during an April/May heat wave. During the annual Mecca pilgrimage this year the temperature rose to 51.8°C and over 1,300 pilgrims died. Disasters like these - and the wildfires currently raging through Los Angeles - are all in large part due to global temperature rises.
"The devastating impacts of climate change are being felt across the whole planet, with extreme weather costing two trillion dollars globally over the past decade, according to the International Chamber of Commerce. The message is clear: it is too late to simply aim for net zero by 2050 and hope for the best. To secure a manageable future for humanity, we must urgently reduce our greenhouse gas emissions - which were projected to be at around 41.6 billion tonnes last year - through deep and rapid reduction fostered around the world. But to assure such a manageable future we must also remove, at scale, the excess greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The lesson is that greenhouse gas levels will have to be reduced from the current level of over 500 to less than 350 parts per million. And every country, every region, every city of the world will need to develop good resilience strategies to manage the dramatic changes in global weather systems already underway.”
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