2024 breaks climate records | Early warning systems and climate services are crucial for building resilience in agrifood systems
Rome, Italy - In the State of the Global Climate 2024, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals that temperature rise fueled extreme weather events during the year, with devastating consequences for food security around the world.
The report confirmed that global temperatures in 2024 rose to more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era for the first calendar year on record. The authors stress however that this one year above 1.5°C does not mean the Paris Agreement has not been met, although accelerated action is essential to keep the Paris Agreement within reach. There may still be time to intervene including through mitigation and resilience solutions only found through agrifood systems.
The FAO Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and the Environment (OCB) made a significant contribution to the ‘High-impact events’ section of the report, which recommends that more countries adopt adequate, multi-hazard early warning systems and climate services, to boost resilience in the future. FAO OCB Director Kaveh Zahedi says the State of the Global Climate 2024 also reinforces the need for rapid implementation of agricultural solutions:
“Every fraction of a degree of warming puts greater stress on agriculture and food systems and our ability to tackle food insecurity,” Mr Zahedi says. “Nations must include more ambitious emission-reduction targets and agricultural solutions in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) this year, while scaling up multi-hazard early warning systems as a cornerstone of their adaptation strategies and investments.”
High-impact events
Extreme weather events, including cyclones, wildfires, floods and droughts, led to the highest number of new displacements recorded in a year since 2008, according to the State of the Global Climate 2024. Destroying homes, infrastructure, forests, farmland and biodiversity, the events caused billions of dollars in economic losses, and frustrated global efforts to end hunger and food insecurity.
The WMO authors say shocks in 2024, including drought, conflict and high food prices, worsened food crises in 18 countries globally. There were eight countries with at least one million more people facing acute food insecurity by mid-2024 than during 2023.
Tropical Cyclone Chido caused casualties and economic losses in Mayotte, Malawi and Mozambique, displacing around 100,000 people in Mozambique alone. Equatorial East Africa was hit by exceptional flooding, causing major loss of life in Kenya and Tanzania as well as displacements, destruction of croplands and loss of livestock.
Dry conditions in the wet season led to drought in northwestern and southern African countries, especially Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia, with significant impacts on agriculture. In the United States, Hurricane Helene also led to flooding and rainfall, the most seen since Katrina in 2005, causing more than 200 deaths and tens of billions of dollars in economic losses.
The State of the Global Climate 2024 authors note that reliable data provided by climate services and early warning systems are vital to saving lives, protecting communities and economies going forward. The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Professor Celeste Saulo observes in the Report foreword that only one-half of countries around the world have adequate multi-hazard early warning systems.
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State of the Global Climate 2024