Record the final temperatures year has pushed the world’s water cycle into “new extreme weather conditions,” according to the Global Water Monitor 2024 report. The document, produced by an international organization led by researchers at the Australian National University, says that these climate anomalies caused floods and droughts that killed more than -8,700, displacement of 40 million people, and economic losses of more than 550 billion dollars.
The report was carried out by an international team and led by ANU professor Albert van Dijk. It shows that 2024 was the hottest year on record for almost four billion people in 111 countries, and that the surface air temperature was 1.2 degrees Celsius above what was recorded at the beginning of the century and 2.2 degrees Celsius above the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Van Dijk asserts that water systems around the world were affected. “From historic droughts to catastrophic floods, these extreme weather variations affect lives, livelihoods, and the entire environment. “Water is our most important resource, and its extreme conditions are among the biggest threats we face,” he said.
The report’s authors analyzed data from thousands of ground and satellite stations that collect real-time information on key water variables, including rainfall intensity and frequency, soil moisture, and flooding.
“We found that rainfall records are continuously being broken. For example, total monthly rainfall records are reached 27 percent more often by 2024 than at the beginning of this century, and daily rainfall records are reached 52 percent more often. The drop in records was the most common at 38 percent, so we are seeing extreme extremes on both sides,” said Van Dijk.
As a result, ocean temperatures are rising, intensifying tropical storms and droughts in the Amazon and southern Africa, the study says. Global warming allowed the formation of slow-moving storms in Europe, Asia, and Brazil, causing some regions—such as Valencia in Spain—to experience very high rainfall. Widespread flooding occurred in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while rising levels of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers in southern China damaged rice crops.
“In Bangladesh, heavy rains and floods and the release of water from dams affected more than 5.8 million people, and destroyed at least one million tons of rice. In the Amazon basin, forest fires caused by heat and drought destroyed more than 52,000 square kilometers in September alone, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases,” said Van Dijk.
The study added that changes in the water cycle exacerbated food shortages, disrupted shipping lanes, and disrupted hydroelectricity in some regions. “We need to prepare and adapt to the most difficult events. That could mean adopting stronger flood defenses, developing new food production systems and more drought-resistant water supply networks,” suggests Van Dijk.
World leaders have pledged to implement measures and policies to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, but the World Meteorological Organization has indicated that current efforts are insufficient. The WMO estimates that there is an 80 percent chance that the average global temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years. The projections suggest that humanity is still far from meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and raise new concerns about the progress of climate change.
Finding financial resources is another challenge. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that the funding gap for addressing climate change is between $194 billion and $366 billion per year.
António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said “we are moving on a tightrope of the planet. Either leaders close the emissions gap or we are headed for a climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable people suffering the most. The countdown to action has begun.”
This story appeared first Thread in Español and translated from Spanish.