Global Climate News

The year 2024 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures surpassing 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. This led to a re-evaluation of global climate strategies, although current commitments are still insufficient. Citi and Bank of America left the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, and BlackRock left the Net-Zero Asset Managers alliance. The Mediterranean region experienced severe climate extremes, including record-breaking heatwaves and devastating floods.

India launched ‘Mission Mausam’ to make the country a ‘Weather-ready and Climate-smart’ nation by developing cutting-edge weather technologies, implementing high-resolution atmospheric observations, and improving the understanding of weather and climate processes. The IMD Vision-2047 document for weather resilience and climate change adaptation was also released.

Taiwan has implemented initiatives to turn incinerator ash into useful products in central Taiwan County, and is working to save native frogs and toads from invasive species through volunteer efforts. An archeological site is providing insights into prehistoric Taiwan.

Wales' Natural Resources Wales (NRW) published an interim State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR 2025), highlighting urgent need for collective action to address nature degradation, climate change, and pollution. The report emphasizes the importance of pro-nature thinking and decision-making across government, business, and society to ensure the sustainability of Wales’ natural resources. The full report, to be published by the end of 2025, will offer a comprehensive evidence base for decision-making.

The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and Khalifa University collaborated on a comprehensive coastal seabed survey aboard the marine research vessel Jaywun to explore the effects of climate change on the Arabian Gulf’s marine ecosystem. The research, launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will inform future sustainability and conservation projects.

An international team of researchers, including those from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), conducted a study on Arctic outbreaks. The study found that despite Arctic warming, cold-air outbreaks will continue. The researchers aim to better understand the triggers of these events and improve their predictability to help communities better prepare for adverse winter weather.

Researchers from the University of Washington, NOAA, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Ocean University of China used the Energy Exascale Earth System Model and a moist energy balance model to study the role of cloud feedback in Arctic amplification. They found that extra-polar cloud feedbacks significantly enhance Arctic warming through interactions with atmospheric heat transport and other feedbacks.

Researchers used satellite data to characterize marine heatwaves in the Chesapeake Bay, identifying a north-south gradient in heatwave duration and number of events. They found that marine heatwave maximum intensity is higher in tributary waters than in the main stem of the Bay. The study highlights the effectiveness of satellite data for studying marine heatwaves in estuaries.

Researchers have developed GelCam, a camera system that captures time-lapse images of particles settling in a sediment trap, enabling observation of time-varying particle flux over shorter durations. The system was deployed nine times during EXPORTS campaigns in 2018 and 2021 in the North Pacific and Atlantic oceans, revealing diel variation in fecal pellet flux and allowing investigation of covariance among different particle types over short timescales. This enhances the ability to resolve sinking events that may be missed with traditional methods.

Researchers have developed a new method to estimate Earth’s effective radiative forcing using artificial intelligence and observational data. The method combines observations of surface temperature and radiative imbalance to predict a forcing trend of 0.72 ± 0.20 Wm^{-2} per decade for 2001–2023. This independent assessment can be updated with new observations.

Researchers from various international institutions have presented coupled geochemical and microbiological data from 47 geothermal seeps in Costa Rica and Panama. Their analysis of methane-cycling microorganisms and clumped isotope data showed that biotic and abiotic processes influence methane cycling, impacting climate stability.

The MCJ newsletter discussed climate change adaptation, featuring Kathryn Bakos from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation and Seyed Madaeni from Verse, a clean energy procurement software company. It also highlighted a YouTube video from Google on wildfire prediction and listed several climate-related job openings.

The report analyzes temperature anomalies for six continents (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania) from 1910 to 2024, using the NOAAGlobalTemp data set. Continental polygons are composed of 5° x 5° grid points, weighted by area and averaged to compute continental temperature anomaly time series. Anomalies are computed relative to the 1910-2000 average.

The NOAA has released global temperature and precipitation maps and time series data for December 2024 and the full year. The complete December 2024 Global Climate Report is forthcoming on January 14, 2025.

NOAA, UAH, RSS, and UW have released data on global atmospheric temperature anomalies in the troposphere and stratosphere for December and year-to-date 2024, showing warming trends in the troposphere and cooling trends in the stratosphere. The data is based on radiosonde and satellite measurements, adjusted to remove biases.

US President Joe Biden announced a permanent stop to new oil and gas drilling across more than 625m acres of US coastal waters, protecting 20% of the seabed. President-elect Donald Trump pledged to halt wind farm construction during his second term. The Biden administration finalized rules offering billions in tax credits for hydrogen production. California wildfires caused at least $50bn in losses. 2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record, exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Analysis showed climate-induced sea level rise will overwhelm major oil ports. Oxfam analysis revealed the world’s richest 1% used up their 2025 share of the 1.5C carbon budget in 10 days.

Globally, 2024 marked the warmest year on record, exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in most leading datasets. Record-high ocean heat content, widespread regional warming impacting 3.3 billion people, and record-high greenhouse gas concentrations were also observed. The causes remain under investigation, but human-caused greenhouse gases, El Niño variability, and cloud reflectivity changes are implicated.

NASA confirmed 2024 as the warmest year on record, exceeding the 2023 record by 2.30 degrees Fahrenheit (1.28 degrees Celsius) above the 1951-1980 baseline. The annual average may have exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above the baseline for the first time. This warming trend is attributed to heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

The Audubon Society's 125th Christmas Bird Count in Central Park, NYC, collected data on bird populations. The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service use this data in reports on climate change and biodiversity loss. The count revealed a banner year for Tufted Titmice (283) and a record number of Red-tailed Hawks (25).

Canada's Polar Knowledge Canada opened a new office in Whitehorse, Yukon, to strengthen relationships with researchers and Indigenous knowledge holders. Since 2021, it has provided over $4 million in grants for 25 Yukon projects and over $470,000 to 119 students for research. Research includes testing clean energy technologies to reduce fossil fuel dependence and understanding diseases affecting wildlife sustainability.