At noon Eastern time on Jan. 10, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will release their assessment of temperature and climate trends for 2024.

Ahead of this assessment, though, climate scientists are already warning that the planet continues to reach record warming levels, driving extreme weather, exacerbating disasters and pushing ecosystems toward their tipping points. University of Michigan experts are available to comment on these trends and their impacts on society, the environment and more.

Richard Rood is a professor emeritus of climate and space sciences and engineering at the College of Engineering. He can comment on emerging climate trends affecting warming and the consequences of ever increasing global temperatures.

“The emerging signals of planetary warming challenged scientists in 2024,” Rood said. “Extraordinarily high sea surface temperatures have persisted, and another record warm year will be recorded. Recent climate modeling experiments suggest that the reduced cloud cover has played a role in the surging temperatures by reducing the amount of sunlight reflected back to space, but we do not fully understand what is causing the changes in the cloudiness.

“As heat accumulates in the ocean, historical patterns of sea surface temperature are changing, and the signals of warming are taking over the environment, in both expected and unexpected ways. Damage from floods and wildfires continue to increase as climate change impacts more populated areas and amplifies the consequences of weather disasters. This stresses our resources to respond, especially, as disasters hit the same areas before there has been time to recover.

“At the same time there is little promise of the development of policies to accelerate our efforts to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Our ability to plan for adaptation to do essential research on geoengineering and tipping points is imperiled by the immediacy of current crises and an uncertain policy environment.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Jonathan Overpeck, an interdisciplinary climate scientist and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability, is an expert on climate and weather extremes, sea-level rise, the impacts of climate change and options for dealing with it. He served as a lead author on the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 and 2014 reports.

“The jump in global temperature was unprecedented in 2023, and it is surprising to many climate scientists that 2024 set an even hotter new global record. Rather than an expected cooling off after the spring-time end of an El Niño warm event in the tropical Pacific, global temperature maintained its record warmth through all of 2024, thus suggesting that the pace of global warming is continuing to accelerate,” Overpeck said. “Given that 2024 was also the first year to surpass the 1.5 degree Celsius warming above pre-industrial limit hoped for in the 2015 global Paris Climate Agreement, the possibility that the warming is continuing to accelerate is unwelcome news indeed.

“Around the globe, heatwaves and drought are becoming ever more exceptional, as are the wildfire outbreaks and other related impacts. Record global warmth in 2024 stoked other climate extremes as well, notably above average numbers of major hurricanes in the Atlantic and a continued pattern of flooding rains worldwide. In addition, evidence emerged in 2024 that climate change is pushing the planet faster toward key ‘tipping points’ that could accelerate climate impacts even more.

“Notably, the ocean circulation in the Atlantic may be closer to a tipping point than many scientists thought. So, too, may be the drying out of the Amazon that could dramatically speed up the demise of large areas of tropical rainforest that have served as a major natural carbon dioxide sink for millennia. To sum it up, 2024 was another eye-popping wake-up call when it came to the growing climate crisis.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome is an associate research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the School for Environment and Sustainability, a collaboration with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. She is also an adjunct associate research scientist in climate and space sciences and engineering at the College of Engineering. Her research aims to improve our ability to predict hazardous weather, ice and lake/ocean events in cold regions to better support coastal communities.

“The recent record warm years across the globe has many implications for cold regions. Ice-covered areas, such as the polar oceans, terrestrial permafrost and freezing lakes, experienced accelerated melting of snow and ice,” Fujisaki-Manome said.

“This warming triggers a feedback loop known as the ice-albedo effect, where the loss of reflective snow and ice exposes darker, wetter surfaces that absorb more solar radiation, further intensifying melting. With consecutive warm years, this cycle risks the system reaching a tipping point where the impacts become irreversible. This poses serious threats to global and regional climates, ecosystems, and the cultures and livelihoods of communities that are connected to ice-covered environments. “

Contact: [email protected]

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Greg Keoleian, professor of sustainable systems at the School for Environment and Sustainability, is co-founder and co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems and co-director of MI Hydrogen, U-M’s hydrogen initiative.

Keoleian develops life-cycle models to analyze decarbonization pathways and accelerate sustainability solutions for clean energy transitions, alternative vehicle technologies, buildings and infrastructure, and food systems. He was named to the Reuters Hot List of the world’s top climate scientists in 2021.

“The 2024 record global temperature increase is alarming. While the causes and science behind human-induced climate change are clear, so are the climate solutions and pathways to minimize the damages and costs from droughts, wildfire and heat stress,” Keoleian said.

“Tremendous progress has been made over the last four years through unprecedented government and private sector investments in clean energy. Renewable energy sources including wind and solar now account for over 22% of electricity generation and electric vehicle sales have climbed to almost 10%. Aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals and targets have been set by the Biden administration, state and local governments, businesses and industry, colleges and universities, and many other organizations to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“The societal benefits of climate action overwhelmingly outweigh the costs. These benefits include job creation, U.S. competitiveness, fewer catastrophic events, lower insurance costs, less crop loss and, most importantly, a healthy planet for all populations—particularly the most vulnerable communities.

“While there is much optimism for the future, there are also many deep concerns. Climate action must be accelerated and not thrown into reverse. Recent statements made by the incoming president about stopping wind turbine deployment and expanding oil and gas drilling are irresponsible and reckless and will endanger our future. Further barriers and delays in climate action will simply intensify climate impacts and costs.

“We are already on a path to global warming above 3 degrees Celsius which is well above the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius that can avoid the most adverse impacts of climate change. The incoming president needs to accept the fundamental science and impacts of climate change—it is not a ‘hoax’—as well as the many benefits of climate action for the U.S. economy and our welfare. Misinformation from climate deniers and influencers needs to stop.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Andrew Hoffman is a professor of sustainable enterprise, a position that holds joint appointments at the Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability. His research uses organizational behavior models and theories to understand the cultural and institutional aspects of environmental issues for organizations.

“The changing climate has serious implications for our economy and the market—we can already see rising home insurance rates as a result of more frequent and intense weather events,” Hoffman said.

“Insurance is just the canary in the coal mine, able to measure the real costs of a changing climate. But it is also a harbinger of ways in which the economy can respond to this challenge through more resilient building standards, advances and deployment of renewable energy sources, the transition to the electrification of the automobile sector and, eventually, a rethinking of mobility in general.

“The market is the cause of our rising climate and must be the solution.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Dimitrios Gounaridis is a geospatial data scientist at the School for Environment and Sustainability. His research examines where and to what extent people are disproportionately impacted by climate change and land use decisions—often made by wealthy nations, urban centers or individuals. Using big data, machine learning and remote sensing, his work uncovers the systemic patterns of inequality and vulnerability, providing data-driven insights to inform equitable and sustainable solutions.

“Our latest findings highlight a concerning reality: Many communities across the country are facing the combined challenges of underestimated climate hazards, social vulnerability and widespread doubt about climate change, often rooted in a broader distrust of science,” Gounaridis said. “These gaps in trust and preparedness make it harder for communities to recover when disasters strike. As floods and wildfires grow more frequent and intense, addressing these challenges is becoming increasingly urgent.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Todd Allen is the chair of nuclear engineering radiological sciences at the College of Engineering, director of the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative and co-director of MI Hydrogen.

“Moving to a cleaner energy future requires community-engaged approaches that speed up technology deployment, reducing resistance to change by respecting community priorities,” Allen said. “The NOAA Climate Report is an important reminder of the need for an inclusive set of technologies and policies that continue to reduce pollution while ensuring energy resilience and improving lives.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Mosharaf Chowdhury is an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the College of Engineering. He can comment on the ballooning energy consumption and carbon footprint of artificial intelligence, and what is needed to ensure the technology doesn’t fuel further climate change.

“Generative AI adoption and its energy consumption are skyrocketing. For instance, training GPT-3, a precursor to ChatGPT, consumed an estimated 1.3 GWh of electricity in 2020. By 2022, Amazon trained a single large language model (LLM) that consumed 11.9 GWh, enough to power over a thousand U.S. households for a year,” Chowdhury said.

“AI inference consumes even more energy because a model trained once serves millions. This surge is not only inflating carbon emissions and curtailing efforts to reduce future carbon emissions, but it will also hinder the deployment of AI services in places without high-capacity electricity grids, widening inequality gaps across the planet.

“Despite these challenges, AI holds immense potential to combat climate change. AI can optimize energy consumption, enhance the efficiency of renewable energy sources, and improve climate predictions. To ensure AI is sustainable, we need a concerted effort across the economy involving key stakeholders. Research from my lab suggests that optimizing LLM training can reduce its energy consumption by up to 30% without compromising performance. Researchers must continue to develop energy-efficient AI solutions, while industry leaders must leverage renewable energy for AI infrastructure and prioritize ethical considerations to avoid exacerbating social inequalities.

“Policymakers can play a crucial role by establishing regulations and incentives that promote the development and adoption of sustainable AI technologies. This includes funding research into energy-efficient AI, setting standards for AI energy consumption, and ensuring that AI benefits are equitably distributed across all communities. By working together, policymakers, researchers and industry leaders can harness the power of AI to address climate change while minimizing its environmental impact.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Thomas McKenney is an associate professor of practice in naval architecture and marine engineering at the College of Engineering. He researches ship design, maritime decarbonization and passenger vessel design and operation, and he works to strengthen the collaborative bridge between academia and the maritime industry to maximize global impact. He can comment on the role of maritime carbon emissions in climate change and what needs to be done to reduce shipping emissions.

“Shipping accounts for around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the International Maritime Organization has introduced a number of energy efficiency regulations. While those regulations have helped, the record-breaking temperatures of 2024 are a stark reminder that efficiency improvements alone are not enough,” McKenney said.

“As a hard-to-abate, internationally regulated sector, the maritime industry must leverage our unique position to push beyond incremental improvements. This means championing energy efficiency, alternative fuels and bold policy measures, while creating a supportive environment for first movers to lead the way in our industry’s critical transition. At the same time, many other easier-to-abate sectors with readily available solutions are not meeting their targets. We need a holistic, global approach to emissions reduction across all industries.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Volker Sick is a professor of mechanical engineering at the College of Engineering, director of the Global CO 2 Initiative and the faculty director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a co-author of two recent National Academies reports on CO2 utilization that show how captured CO2 can be used to replace fossil carbon to meet critical product needs.

“The ever more alarming news about natural disasters and our changing environment demonstrates the urgency of our situation. We need decisive, rapid, and large-scale Action,” Sick said. “However, we also need to be thoughtful with the introduction of new technologies to best utilize resources and to prevent avoidable adverse effects, for example, on jobs, land and water use, and availability of critical infrastructures.

“Securing access to carbon-based products will always be a top priority for any society. The mounting pressure to avoid the use of fossil carbon for that purpose is a huge opportunity for economic prosperity, a vitalization of industries that can also bring jobs to underdeveloped and abandoned regions. CO2 as a feedstock can be harvested nearly anywhere.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Alan Taub is a professor of materials science and engineering at the College of Engineering and director of the U-M Electric Vehicle Center. He is an expert on advanced materials and electric vehicles and their environmental impacts. His research and leadership focus on accelerating the transition to sustainable mobility and making Michigan the E-Motor Capital.

“Transitioning to electric vehicles is one of the most effective steps we can take to combat climate change,” Taub said. “By analyzing vehicle choices and their emissions impacts across different regions, we can better understand how to accelerate the shift to lower-carbon transportation.

“The data is clear—battery electric vehicles offer the greatest potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. It’s imperative that we move quickly to expand EV adoption and the necessary infrastructure to meet the urgency of this global challenge.”

Contact: [email protected]

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Valeria Bertacco is a professor of computer science and engineering at the College of Engineering and vice provost for engaged learning, supporting all international partnerships and co-curricular engagements at the university. Since 2023, she has led the MAVERIC collaborative, U-M’s initiative to advance semiconductor research and education. Throughout her career, she has contributed novel solutions to computer hardware design, including in design validation and reliability, hardware-security assurance, and the design of specialized architectures for graph algorithms and machine learning.

“As worldwide energy consumption of computing continues to grow, driven in large part by the increased use of generative AI, it is still possible to minimize associated carbon emissions by proactively moving computation to locations and times that utilize green energy sources,” Bertacco said.

“We are developing novel tools to help users and data centers better contain their carbon emissions by assessing the energy demands of computation tasks and then making recommendations on how to relocate and reschedule computation workloads to improve utilization of green energy sources. By utilizing these techniques, we can have our cake and eat it too—have plentiful energy for next-generation computing tasks while minimizing carbon emissions.”

Contact: [email protected]