The Earth Experienced Another Year of Record Warming. The Climate Fallout Was Intense

The year 2024 set an ominous heat record, as global average temperatures rose more than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels for the first time. Climate scientists say that without vigorous efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, this warming trend is set to continue through the end of the century.

Despite dramatic growth in wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources, however, the world’s emissions are not coming down. On current trends, experts say global average temperatures will certainly exceed 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100.

Even at current levels of warming, weather-related disasters are on the rise, fueling climate-related threats—including droughts, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires—in countries around the world. Take a look at how climate change is affecting each continent.

Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent, bearing the brunt of myriad climate disasters. From 1991–2003, warming trends in Asia were almost double the 1961–1990 period. Meanwhile, heatwaves in the region have also become more severe in frequency and intensity. Of the approximately 490,000 heat-related deaths that occur each year, 45 percent are in Asia, according to research conducted between 2000 and 2019.

Severe flooding, typhoons, and heavy rainfall also hit Asia the hardest. In August 2024, flooding in Pakistan displaced more than 140,000 people. Typhoon Yagi, the largest tropical storm to hit the continent in 2024, killed almost six hundred people across South China and Southeast Asia—mostly in Myanmar and Vietnam—primarily due to landslides and flash floods.

Droughts have also harmed the livelihood of populations living in southwestern China and parts of Central Asia. In 2022, a drought in China’s Yangtze River valley temporarily halted hydropower, which makes up 80 percent of Sichuan province’s energy. The river provides drinking water for more than four hundred million people.

The Asian Development Bank predicts that under current emission trends, rising sea levels, heat, and other climate impacts will cut regional gross domestic product by 17 percent by 2070. That number could climb up to 41 percent by 2100.

Climate change is causing Europe to heat up faster than any other continent, according to European climate officials. Since at least 2000, the region has experienced devastating heat waves, with 2024 bringing the hottest-ever recorded temperatures.

Experts say one reason for the increase in temperatures is Europe’s proximity to the Arctic, which experiences climate change more strongly than other regions, as well as overall warmer oceanic and atmospheric currents in the area. Across the continent, hotter temperatures, in addition to decreased rainfall, are aggravating drought conditions for farmers, with agriculture one of Europe’s hardest-hit sectors. Drier conditions make it easier for fires to start and spread.

Worsening extreme weather is driving European countries to rapidly transition to renewable energy sources, which are becoming increasingly cost-competitive. In the first six months of 2024, thirteen European Union countries generated more electricity from solar and wind sources than from fossil fuels. That same year, the European Commission adopted the Net Zero Industry Act, which aims to scale up clean-technology manufacturing.

Much of the African continent is struggling with extreme heat. Temperatures across the Sahel reached their hottest ever last year, propelled by climate change, scientists say.

Countries around Africa have endured both torrential rainfall and searing drought, unleashing some of the worst conditions seen in decades and leading to massive power cuts, destruction to agriculture and critical services, and displacement.

Both dry and wet periods are growing more severe—and lasting longer. Relative to 1970–79, the frequency of droughts in sub-Saharan Africa nearly tripled [PDF] from 2010 to 2019.

Those climate disasters often lead to famine and hurt access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare, making people more vulnerable to illness. Water scarcity affects one in three Africans already and is predicted to grow worse. Between 2026 and 2050, climate change is projected to cause between 4.1 and 5.2 billion cases of climate-sensitive diseases in low- and middle-income countries, equating to as much as $20 trillion in economic loss, according to a World Bank-backed study.

Latin America is considered the second-most disaster-prone region in the world. In 2024, the area experienced major hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires. Those extreme weather events are only predicted to become more intense and frequent. Several rivers in South America reached record-low levels while Venezuela became the first Andean country to lose all of its glaciers, according to a 2025 report by the World Meteorological Organization.

Of particular concern is the Amazon Rainforest, the world’s largest tropical forest and one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. In 2024, extreme drought, deforestation, and El Niño—a weather pattern characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Pacific—fueled the outbreak of more than 140,000 fires in Brazil’s Amazon, where close to two-thirds of the forest lies, even as overall deforestation figures declined.

The Caribbean’s small island states are especially vulnerable to climate change. Due to their exposed location, relative isolation, and small size, they face acute risks, including sea-level rise, increased rainfall and flooding, saltwater intrusion, and coastal erosion. Some experts say that low-lying islands, such as those in the Caribbean, could eventually become uninhabitable.

The region also experienced a year of powerful and unusual storms, including Hurricane Beryl, which became the earliest Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic basin, and Hurricane Milton. In the United States, there were a total of twenty-seven weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages in 2024, trailing 2023 by only one.

As climate change intensifies, farmers and ranchers are increasingly struggling to make a living, fueling urbanization and instability in countries across the region. This dynamic is particularly acute in Central America’s so-called Dry Corridor, which has been hard hit by prolonged drought, erratic rainfall, and water scarcity, leading to food shortages and crop failures.

The Middle East faces unprecedented water scarcity in an already dry region, which has had devastating effects on food production systems. The environmental think tank World Resources Institute reports that 83 percent of the population in the Middle East and North Africa region is exposed to extremely high water stress.

Regional conflict and war have compounded the negative effects of extreme climate disasters as warring groups weaponize water access. In Yemen, Saudi-led blockades exacerbated existing water scarcity issues, leading to some of the highest cholera-related death rates in the world between 2016 and 2021, while Turkey has conducted air strikes on critical water infrastructure in northeastern Syria to limit resources for Kurdish groups fighting for autonomy in the region.

Extreme heat is also a major concern. In summer 2024, temperatures in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, reached 144°F (62.2°C). During the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, temperatures were as high as 125°F (51.6°C), resulting in more than 1,300 deaths from heat stress and related illnesses.

Climate change is pushing temperatures to rise three times higher in the Arctic than the global average. As a result, snow and ice are melting at a rate faster than ever, contributing to sea-level rise and temperature fluctuations around the world. This is also disrupting marine ecosystems, causing wildlife habitat loss, and decreasing food availability, putting Arctic fauna at risk of extinction.

Indigenous populations in the region are significantly affected, especially those who rely on subsistence agriculture and harvesting. Tribes have reported significant land erosion, flooding, and issues with thawing permafrost. As those issues persist, tribes are faced with the difficult decision to relocate or stay and endure worsening conditions.

Experts say climate disasters are likely to continue to increase in frequency, scale, and damage around the world in the coming decades. While nations have agreed that the world should avoid global warming reaching greater than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels to avert the worst effects of climate change, countries have not reduced emissions enough to achieve that goal. On current emissions trends, warming levels are on pace to reach 3°C (5.4°F) or more by the end of this century, says CFR Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate Varun Sivaram.

To address this reality, the United States and global governments should prepare to navigate a world made more dangerous by climate change, and work to avert as much future warming as possible. Sivaram writes that Washington “needs a strategy to work with like-minded partners to drive China and emerging economies—the source of most future cumulative greenhouse gas emissions—to slash their emissions.” The first step of doing so is acknowledging that humanity is on path for a warmer world.

On The President’s Inbox podcast, CFR’s Alice C. Hill and Varun Sivaram discuss what the United States has done and should do to confront a changing climate.

Carbon Brief maps extreme weather events and how climate has affected the intensity, frequency, and impact of such events across the globe in 2024.

In this series of Discussion Papers, CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker details how climate change and regional instability affects the world, from Central America and the Middle East to African countries in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

This Backgrounder identifies how climate change is intensifying water scarcity and threatening global health and development.

This Backgrounder unpacks the global push for climate financing to protect the most vulnerable nations from climate disasters.