Global temperature likely to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial level in next 5 years — UN

MOSCOW, June 6 (Bernama-Sputnik) — The probability that global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels over the next five years is 80 per cent, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said in a statement, reported Sputnik.

“There is an 80 per cent likelihood that the annual average global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the next five years… . This is a stark warning that we are getting ever closer to the goals set in the Paris Agreement on climate change, which refers to long-term temperature increases over decades, not over one to five years,” the WMO said on Wednesday.

The agency added that “the global mean near-surface temperature for each year between 2024 and 2028 is predicted to be between 1.1°C and 1.9°C higher than the 1850-1900 baseline,” and there is an 86 per cent chance that “at least one of these years will set a new temperature record, beating 2023 which is currently the warmest year.”

There is also a 47 per cent chance that “the global temperature averaged over the entire five-year 2024-2028 period will exceed 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial era,” the statement said.

The Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, was adopted on Dec 12, 2015, at the 21st annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As many as 175 nations signed the agreement, including the United States, China and Russia.

— Bernama-Sputnik