Scientists are issuing a stark warning about the changing climate after the planet reached a key warming benchmark in 2024.

Newly released data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service showed last week that the world’s average surface temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer on average last year than it had been prior to industrialization.

U.S. data showed the world was just shy of the 1.5-degree threshold.

Scientists have said that in order to avoid some of the worst and most irreversible impacts of climate change, policymakers should try to limit warming to that benchmark. The 1.5-degree benchmark was enshrined in the Paris Agreement, in which most global nations pledged to work to keep the world from crossing it in an effort to protect against those effects.

The Earth hitting the 1.5-degree threshold for just one year does not necessarily mean it has warmed that much permanently. Nevertheless, the data is a glaring reminder that the planet is inching closer to irreversible damage.

“In some ways, it’s certainly a very important and a very sad milestone for the world, and it’s just a real wake-up call that the climate crisis is........

© The Hill