January 14, 2025

350.org Asia reacts to breaching of 1.5°C global warming threshold in 2024

January 14, 2025—The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed 2024 as the hottest year on record, with average global temperatures exceeding pre-industrial levels by 1.55°C. It was the first calendar year that average temperatures surpassed the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Many Asian countries such as Japan, India, Indonesia, and China have recorded 2024 as their hottest year. Climate disasters and other climate impacts were also intensely felt across the region last year, including: more than 800 dead in Southeast Asia due to Typhoon Yagi, extreme heatwaves in South and Southeast Asia, massive flooding in China, and the longest no-snow record in Japan’s Mt Fuji. 

Norly Mercado, 350.org Asia Regional Director says:

“Deadly climate impacts felt throughout Asia during last year’s record-breaking temperatures prove that every fraction of a degree in global warming matters. Millions of lives were disrupted due to climate-linked school closures, loss of livelihoods, injuries and deaths. Yet, governments are still not doing enough to end fossil fuels and replace them with community-led renewable energy. It is critical that governments ensure that their country’s climate plans (Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC), due this February, include concrete and ambitious plans to phase out fossil fuels and fairly transition to renewable energy. The 1.5°C breach shows that the just transition in Asia can no longer be delayed. But for it to be truly just, the people, especially the most vulnerable, must be at the center of climate policy and decision-making–not the same polluting industries that have led us to this catastrophic breach.” 

Chuck Baclagon, 350.org Asia Regional Campaigner says:

“Across Asia, many climate-affected communities have shown how rejecting fossil fuels and embracing renewable energy can improve their lives and make them more resilient to ever-worsening climate impacts. Community-led renewable energy provides a hopeful model of what Asia’s future can look like. As long as Asian governments look to the fossil industry and other big corporations for climate solutions, the drive for profits will take precedence over the interests of the planet and the people. Policymakers urgently need to follow the people’s lead and harness the potential of community-led renewable energy–or we will continue to breach the 1.5°C limit with disastrous consequences, especially for Asia’s most vulnerable.”

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• Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs are national climate action plans by each country under the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Due for submission in February 2025, NDCs will detail countries’ intended climate actions through 2035.