The five-year period starting this year will almost certainly be the warmest on Earth.
17.5. 13:58
The five-year period starting this year will be the warmest ever measured. The World Meteorological Organization under the UN, WMO has estimated this in its latest report.
– There is a 98 percent chance that at least one of the five years and the entire five-year period will be the warmest on record, the WHO says.
According to the organization, the global average temperature may soon exceed the target set in the Paris Climate Agreement, according to which the increase in average temperature should be kept below two degrees compared to pre-industrial times, i.e. the average of the years. 1850–1900. According to the agreement, it will aim to promote actions that limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
Last year, the average global temperature was 1.15 degrees Celsius higher than in pre-industrial times.
According to the WMO, there is a 66 percent chance that the annual global mean temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in at least one year during the five-year period 2023-2027. While this doesn’t mean the world will permanently exceed the Paris climate accord milestone, the 1.5-degree threshold is more often than not temporarily exceeded, according to WMO Secretary-General Peteri Taalas.
Talas said that we must simultaneously prepare for the El Niño weather phenomenon and the consequences of human-caused climate change. El Nino is expected to develop in the coming months.
An El Niño event occurs every few years, when the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean are exceptionally warm. This results in floods in some parts of the world and droughts in others.
The story has been fully updated with information from the 17.5 report. At 2:52 p.m.