For the first time,
global warming has exceeded 1.5°C
in an entire year, according to the European Union's climate service.
World leaders
pledged in 2015
to try to limit long-term temperature rise to 1.5°C, seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.
This first one-year default does not break that historic "Paris agreement,"
but it brings the world closer to doing so in the long term.
Scientists say taking urgent action to reduce carbon emissions
can still slow warming.
"
This far exceeds anything that is acceptable
," Professor Sir Bob Watson, former president of the UN climate body, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Everything that happened with 1.5°C more
"Look what happened this year with just 1.5°C: we've seen
floods, we've seen droughts, we've seen heat waves and forest fires around the world
, and we're starting to see lower agricultural productivity and some problems with the water. quality and quantity."
The period between February 2023 and January 2024 reached 1.52°C of warming, according to the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The graph below shows how it compares to previous years.
With information from the BBC
Developing