No heat reprieve as 1.5 degrees Celsius limit looms

Temperature limits the world agreed to avoid are looming into view.

- JACK MARLEY

The global temperature has been 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial average for almost two years now. The reason, overwhelmingly, is that greenhouse gas emissions are at record highs from the burning of fossil fuels and forests.

In a new analysis, the World Meteorological Organisation has predicted that global average warming will remain above 1.5 degrees Celsius for the rest of this decade. By some measure, this would place the world nearly halfway to the lower limit of the Paris agreement, which urged countries to avoid warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius as a 20-year average.

Exceeding a globally agreed temperature limit is scary. Perhaps scarier is the speed at which we appear to be breaking our promises.