In 2024, climate crisis worsened in all ways
Sydney: Climate change has been on the world’s radar for decades. Predictions made by scientists at oil giant Exxon in the early 1980s are proving accurate. The damage done by a hotter, more chaotic world is worsening and getting more expensive.
Even so, many countries around the world are failing to meet their emissions targets, with major gaps found even this week between the commitments and actions needed to hold global warming to 1.5°C.
This has put Earth on a dangerous path, as our new report on the state of the climate reveals. Last year was the hottest on record. It was also likely the hottest in at least 125,000 years. Every year, we track 34 of the planet’s vital signs. In 2024, 22 of these indicators were at record levels. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and ocean heat both hit new highs, as did losses of trees to fire.
Meat consumption kept rising, and fossil fuel consumption reached new heights.
The consequences of climate inaction are ever clearer. In 2024, the world’s coral reefs suffered the most widespread bleaching ever recorded, affecting roughly 84 per cent of the world’s coral reef area between January 2023 and May 2025.
Greenland and Antarctic ice mass fell to record lows. Deadly and costly disasters surged, including the flooding in Texas, which killed at least 135 people, while the Los Angeles wildfires have cost more than AUD 380 billion.
Since 2000, global climate-linked disasters have caused more than USD 27 trillion in damages.
Stories and statistics like this are sadly not new. Many other reports and warnings have been published before we started this annual snapshot in 2020. Therefore, our report this year focuses on three high-impact types of climate action, across energy, nature and food.
Combined solar and wind consumption set a new record in 2024, but is still 31 times lower than fossil fuel (oil, coal, gas) energy consumption. This is despite the fact that renewables are now the cheapest choice for new energy almost everywhere. One reason for this is the ongoing subsidies for fossil fuels.
By 2050, solar and wind energy could supply nearly 70 per cent of global electricity. But this transition requires restricting the influence of the fossil fuel industry and a full phase out of fossil fuel production and use, not the expansion we continue to see globally.
As a result of surging fossil fuel consumption, energy-related emissions rose 1.3 per cent in 2024 and reached an all-time high of 40.8 gigatons (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In 2024, the greatest fossil fuel greenhouse gas emitters were China (30.7 per cent of total), the United States (12.5 per cent), India (8.0 per cent), the European Union (6.1 per cent), and Russia (5.5 per cent). Together, they accounted for 62.8 per cent of global emissions.
Sadly, much of the rise in fossil fuel electricity generation may be due to hotter temperatures and heat waves.
Although there are concerns over the environmental impacts of renewables, the greater threat to our biodiversity is climate change and biodiversity conservation and mitigation measures can be part of project planning.
Protecting and restoring ecosystems on land and in the ocean remains one of the most powerful ways to support climate change, biodiversity and human well-being.
