Year 2024 was the world’s warmest but 2025 could be a year of climate optimism
Live MintAs 2024 came to an end, a number of alarming articles have been published in various global and national media on 2024 being the hottest year on record, the disastrous impact of extreme events due to climate change, the need to enhance climate action in the face of contentious climate negotiations in Azerbaijan and an American election that does not bode well for the climate agenda, among others. The sense of foreboding around climate change is palpable primarily because of the contrast between widely published real-time data and the highly visible impact of extreme events across the world and the perceptibly slow evolution of a sub-set of solutions that may take years to reach a take-off point. This clearly indicates high levels of vulnerability to accelerating climate change felt in India and highlights the need for greater adaptive and resilience-building actions. Science, the experience of climate change, its increasingly evident impact and popular opinion across the world all urgently call for much greater ambition on climate action in 2025.