There is now a 40% chance that global temperatures will temporarily reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years — and these odds are rising, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.
This does not yet mean that the world would already be crossing the long-term warming 1.5-degree threshold set by the Paris Agreement of 2015, which scientists warn is the ceiling to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. The Paris pact target looks at temperature over a 30-year average, rather than a single year.
But it does underscore that "we are getting measurably and inexorably closer" to that threshold, U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. Taalas described the study as "yet another wake-up call" to slash greenhouse gas emissions.