Today’s assessment from the World Meteorological Organization is clear: Global heating is a cold, hard fact. 

We have just endured the hottest decade on record — with 2024 topping the list, and likely to be the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.  

Individual years pushing past the 1.5-degree limit do not mean the long-term goal is shot. It means we need to fight even harder to get on track. 

Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025.

Specifically, governments must deliver new national climate action plans this year to limit long-term global temperature rise to 1.5°C, and support the most vulnerable deal with devastating climate impacts.

There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act — now.  

(United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statement on the official confirmation of 2024 as the hottest year, on 10 January 2025.)