State of the Climate
How is the EU doing?

Globally, 2024 was the warmest year on record and the first with an average temperature exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial level. The last ten years have been the warmest ten years on record. Concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane continue to increase. Extreme rainfall is leading to catastrophic floods, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe. Southern Europe is experiencing widespread droughts.

In Europe, the impacts of climate change are clear. Since the 1980s, Europe has warmed twice as fast as the global average, making it the fastest warming continent. This is partly due to the proportion of European land in the Arctic, which is the fastest warming region on Earth, and more frequent summer heatwaves.

The report is compiled by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It relies extensively on datasets provided operationally and in near real time by Copernicus Services. These are freely accessible via data catalogues such as the C3S Climate Data Store (CDS).

To explore the full report, visit

https://climate.copernicus.eu/esotc/2024

For near real time updates of key climate variables, check Climate Pulse

https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/

Encadré 1 - Copernicus Services implemented by ECMWF

The European Centre for Medium‑Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has been entrusted by the European Commission to implement 2 of the 6 services of the Copernicus programme : the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). In addition, ECMWF provides support to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The C3S mission is to support adaptation and mitigation policies of the European Union by providing consistent and authoritative information about climate change. C3S adds value to environmental measurements by providing free access to quality‑assured, traceable data and applications, all day, every day, offering consistent information on the climate anywhere in the world, with the objective to support policymakers, businesses and citizens in preparing for future climate change impacts.

Encadré 2 - World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The WMO is the United Nations system’s authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the land and oceans, the weather and climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources. As weather, climate and the water cycle know no national boundaries, international cooperation at a global scale is essential for the development of meteorology and operational hydrology as well as to reap the benefits from their application. The WMO provides the framework for such international cooperation for its 193 Member States and Territories, and plays a leading role in international efforts to monitor and protect the climate and the environment.

Encadré 3 - 55 Essential Climate Variables

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) has defined 55 Essential Climate Variables (EVC) to systematically characterise Earth's climate system. It provides a framework for climate observations. The European Space Agency has been exploiting the 40 year Earth observation data archive and information from operational missions to generate climate data records, providing strong empirical evidence to understand and predict the evolution of the climate.