Long-term warming close to crossing 1.5°C Paris accord threshold: UN body

Long-term global warming is currently estimated to be between 1.34 and 1.41 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, the World Meteorological Organization's State of the Global Climate report has said.

- Jayashree Nandi

NEW DELHI:

The assessment is based on a range of methods, the report said while pointing that we are a fraction of a degree away from breaching the 1.5 degrees C goal or the lower limit of Paris Agreement. To be sure, 19 of the past 20 months have seen the mark being breached, but scientists insist on a longer-term trend.

HT reported on March 14 that the world could cross the 1.5 degrees C long-term global warming threshold by September 2029 if current warming trend continues according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), a timeline that is significantly sooner than the "early 2030s" projection that was widely agreed upon by scientists. Ambient temperatures have already reached 1.38°C above the pre-industrial levels, C3S reported.

On Tuesday, WMO also said there were clear signs of human-induced climate change reaching new heights in 2024, with some of the consequences being irreversible over hundreds if not thousands of years and underlined that massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather are to be expected. Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years, it said.