Paris Agreement on climate change. But scientists say it is not too late to act.

Last year was the hottest on record and the first to breach a key global warming threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, scientists said. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed previous projections that 2024 was the warmest on record globally and the first calendar year that the average temperature exceeded 1.

Scientists on Friday confirmed that 2024 was the first to surpass a dangerous warming threshold of 1.5 Celsius that nations had pledged not to cross.

It’s official: 2024 is the hottest year on record—and the first to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures. It’s another milestone that underscores how far the present climate has shifted from that of the past because of the continued burning of fossil fuels.