5 February: a study published in Nature Climate Change, based on 300 years of ocean mixed-layer temperature records preserved in sclerosponge skeletons, concluded that modern global warming began in the 1860s (over 80 years earlier than indicated by sea surface temperature records) and was already 1.7°C above pre-industrial levels by 2020—a figure 0.5°C higher than IPCC estimates.[2]
February (reported): a Copernicus Climate Change Service analysis indicated that from February 2023 through January 2024, the running average global average air temperature exceeded 1.5°C for the first time.[3] This single-year breach does not violate the 1.5°C long-term average agreed on in the 2015 Paris Agreement.[3]
12 February: a study published by the nonprofit First Street Foundation reported that improvements in air quality brought about by environmental regulation are being partially reversed by a "climate penalty" caused by climate change, especially with increases in PM2.5 particulates caused by increased wildfires.[4]
2 January: the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. began operation 15 miles from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, initially providing 5 MW from one wind turbine, but planning an eventual 62 turbines capable of powering 400,000 homes and businesses.[5]
18 January: the first successful test of a solar farm in space—collecting solar power from a photovoltaic cell and beaming energy down to Earth—constituted an early feasibility demonstration.[6]
Political, economic, legal, and cultural actions[edit]
8 February: climate scientist Michael E. Mann won a $1 million judgment for punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit filed in 2012 against bloggers who attacked his hockey stick graph of global temperature rise, one of the bloggers having called Mann's work "fraudulent".[7]
January (reported in TIME): The IEA has outlined that by 2030, we must triple our reliance on renewable sources of energy, double energy efficiency, significantly cut methane emissions, and increase electrification with existing technologies.[8]
4 February (reported): to reduce sea level rise caused by melting of Antarctica's Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers, scientists proposed a "Seabed Curtain" 100 kilometres (62 mi) long, moored to and rising from the bed of the Amundsen Sea, designed to reduce the amount of warm ocean water that would melt the base of those glaciers.[9]
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