Introduction: The Current Status of our Climate

The document reports that 2024 was the warmest year on record, marking the first calendar year where global surface air temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by 1.5°C. It details a surge in weather-related disasters, with 62% of all such events since 1984 occurring after 2004, and notes that over 240 million internal displacements occurred between 2013 and 2023 due to natural disasters. The text emphasizes that atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached record highs in 2024, hitting 426.7 ppm in May, which underscores the failure of current global policies to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement targets.

• The year 2024 was the warmest on record and the first calendar year in which global surface air temperatures exceeded the 1850-1900 pre-industrial reference period by 1.5°C.
• There has been a significant increase in the frequency of weather-related disasters; of the 11,640 disasters recorded in the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) since 1984, 62% took place after 2004.
• Natural disasters, primarily storms and floods, caused more than 240 million internal displacements between 2013 and 2023. In 2022 alone, 32 million people were displaced by flooding, storms, and droughts in countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
• Current global climate policies are failing to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aimed to limit temperature increases to below 2°C or ideally 1.5°C, a threshold that recent data suggests has already been breached.

APA

le Roux, A., & Cilliers, J. (2026). Introduction: The Current Status of our Climate. Institute for Security Studies. https://futures.issafrica.org/thematic/guide.pdf?thematic=14-climate-change&topic=01-intro

Chicago

le Roux, Alize, and Jakkie Cilliers. Introduction: The Current Status of our Climate. Institute for Security Studies, 2026. https://futures.issafrica.org/thematic/guide.pdf?thematic=14-climate-change&topic=01-intro.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=le Roux |first1=Alize |last2=Cilliers |first2=Jakkie |title=Introduction: The Current Status of our Climate |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=29 March 2026 |url=https://futures.issafrica.org/thematic/guide.pdf?thematic=14-climate-change&topic=01-intro |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{leroux2026introduction, author = {le Roux, Alize and Cilliers, Jakkie}, title = {{Introduction: The Current Status of our Climate}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://futures.issafrica.org/thematic/guide.pdf?thematic=14-climate-change&topic=01-intro}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }