‘World's carbon budget for 1.5 C likely to exhaust in six years’

The world will exhaust in about six years, the remaining before the 1.5°C warming threshold is breached consistently, the Global Carbon Project's science team has projected.

- Jayashree Nandi

The carbon budget is the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that will result in limiting global warming to a given level, in this case, the Paris accord's target of 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels. This year is on track to be the first year that sees the threshold being crossed.

At the current rate of emissions, the Global Carbon Budget team estimated a 50% chance that global average temperatures will exceed 1.5°C consistently in about six years.

"It's clear that the remaining carbon budget-and therefore the time left to meet the 1.5°C target and avoid the worst impacts of climate change - has almost run out," a report by the Global Carbon Project said.