Last year was China’s hottest on record, with the past four years being its warmest ever, according to the country’s weather agency.
As the leading emitter of greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, China has set a goal to peak its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.
In 2024, the national average temperature reached 10.92°C (51.66°F), marking an increase of 1.03°C compared to previous years. This made it the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1961, the China Meteorological Administration reported on Wednesday.
The past four years have recorded the highest temperatures, with all of the top 10 warmest years since 1961 occurring in the 21st century.
July 2024 saw China’s hottest month on record, while August and autumn also set new temperature highs.
The United Nations confirmed on Monday that 2024 is on track to be the hottest year globally. Other nations have also reported temperature records for the year.
India declared Wednesday that 2024 was its hottest year since 1901, while Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reported that it was the second-warmest year since records began in 1910. Germany’s weather agency stated in December that 2024 was the hottest year in its 143-year history. The Czech weather service also noted that 2024 was by far the warmest year in Prague since records began in 1775, surpassing previous records from 2018 and 2023 by 0.5°C.
The effects of global warming are far-reaching. Warmer air can hold more moisture, and warmer oceans result in greater evaporation, leading to more intense storms and rainfall. The consequences include rising property damage and crop destruction, with deadly and costly impacts worldwide.
In Beijing, finance professional Xu Yici expressed frustration that warmer-than-usual weather had disrupted the city’s traditional winter activity of ice skating. “There’s no ice in the Summer Palace. I was going to go ice skating at the Summer Palace but I didn’t get to do it this year,” Xu said.
Severe floods killed dozens and forced thousands to evacuate across China last year. In May, heavy rain caused a highway collapse in southern China, resulting in 48 fatalities. Guangzhou endured a record-long summer, with 240 days of average temperatures above 22°C, breaking the previous record of 234 days set in 1994. Heat and drought affected Sichuan, Chongqing, and the Yangtze River region in early autumn.
Despite these extreme weather events, some residents, like IT worker Xue Weiya, expressed confidence in the government’s efforts to protect the environment, believing that the weather will not have a significant impact on their lives.
Globally, 2024 saw devastating floods in Spain and Kenya, powerful storms in the United States and the Philippines, and widespread drought and wildfires in South America. These natural disasters caused an estimated $310 billion in economic losses, according to Swiss Re, a Zurich-based insurance company.
Under the 2015 Paris climate accords, world leaders committed to limiting global temperature rise to well below 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels, with a goal of limiting the rise to 1.5°C if possible. In November, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the global surface air temperature from January to September 2024 was 1.54°C above the pre-industrial average, measured between 1850 and 1900.
