Record temperatures continue according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Global
climate predictions show temperatures are expected to continue at or near record levels over the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on communities, economies and sustainable development.
The data also indicated a small likelihood that before 2030, the world could experience a year that is 2C hotter than the preindustrial era, which could have serious consequences.
Coming after the hottest 10 years ever measured, record temperatures continue with the latest medium-term global climate update highlighting the growing threat to human health, national economies and natural landscapes unless people stop burning oil, gas, coal and trees.
The update, which puts together short-term weather observations and long-term climate projections, said there was a 70% chance that five-year average warming for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5C above preindustrial levels close to the target set by the Paris Agreement. It also reported an 86% likelihood that 1.5C would be passed in at least one of the next five years, up from 40% in the 2020 report.
Last year the 1.5C threshold was breached on an annual basis for the first time – an outcome that was considered implausible in any of the five-year predictions before then. 2014 was the hottest in the 175-year observational record. Every additional fraction of a degree of warming drives more harmful heatwaves, extreme rainfall events, intense droughts, melting of ice sheets, sea ice, and
glaciers, heating of the ocean, and rising sea levels.
However, the impacts will not fall equally. Arctic winters are predicted to warm 3.5 times faster than the global average, partly because sea ice is melting, which means snow falls directly into the ocean rather than forming a layer on the surface to reflect the sun’s heat back into space.
Read more from the WMO news release here and find out about what A.C.E Settle are doing throughout the website.