According to the World Weather Organization, the global average temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees for the first time in the next five years.
The global average temperature is very likely to climb more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for the first time in any of the next five years. This was announced by the World Weather Organization (WMO) on Wednesday in Geneva in its latest forecast. Last year, the WMO put the probability of this forecast coming true at just under 50 percent. Now she is assuming 66 percent.
At the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015, the goal was agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to the end of the 19th century in order to limit global climate damage. The WMO does not assume that global warming will permanently climb above this mark in the next few years. “However, the WMO is sounding the alarm because we will break through the level of 1.5 degrees temporarily more and more frequently,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas.
The UN agency expects the mean annual temperature to reach a record at least once by 2027. The reason for this is a combination of man-made climate change and the naturally occurring climate phenomenon El Niño, it said. “This will have far-reaching implications for health, food security, water management and the environment,” Taalas warned. “We have to prepare.”
El Niño and its counterpart La Niña favor extreme weather in many regions of the world. El Niño drives up the average global temperature, while La Niña has a cooling effect. They appear alternately every few years.
