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Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fuelled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally-occurring El Niño event, according to an update by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The critical Paris Agreement target of containing global average world temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels will be temporarily exceeded, its analysis published on Wednesday concludes. There is a 66 per cent likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. There is a 98 per cent likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record. “This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5-degree level specified in the Paris Agreement which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5-degree level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency,” said WMO secretary general Prof Petteri Taalas. Read the rest of the story here Source: The Irish Times  Comments are closed.
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