Breaching 1.5C Threshold Temporarily in Next Five Years ‘More Likely Than Not’
Scientists who authored a major WMO report warned the world is getting ‘closer and closer’ to passing a key temperature mark.
A construction worker rehydrates with water during high temperatures at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Photographer: Paul Hanna/BloombergGlobal temperatures are likely to temporarily breach the 1.5C of warming threshold for at least one of the next five years, according to a new World Meteorological Organization forecast.
In its annual update predicting near-term global annual average temperatures, the WMO said there is a 66% chance that the world could cross the key threshold between 2023 and 2027. This marks the first time that the organization has forecast it’s more likely than not that the world will see a year that’s 1.5C hotter than pre-industrial times. (Last year’s five-year forecast had the odds at 50%.) The report also notes that the global annual average temperature could climb as high as 1.8C sometime in the next five years, though the odds for that are lower.