Here’s how we can stop the world breaching 1.5C for a year.
This article was authored by a 3rd party not related to PlanetVoters.com and any opinions or views expressed are not a reflection of PlanetVoters.com.
By Rosie Frost
August 2, 2023
The window to keep the Paris Agreement limit alive is ‘shrinking’ but it isn’t closed yet.
Global warming has exceeded 1.5C for an entire year for the first time ever, according to the EU’s climate service.
Humans are responsible for virtually all global heating in the last 200 years, scientists say. And 2023 was a year filled with extraordinary droughts, searing heatwaves and deadly rainfall.
So what needs to be done to cool our planet? Can we still keep the Paris Agreement target alive and is it still possible to keep global warming from spiralling out of control?
Why is 1.5C such an important threshold?
The Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5C is based on long-term averages rather than data for a single year so we haven’t crossed the line quite yet.
“It’s important to stress that this does not mean the limit set by the Paris Agreement has been exceeded,” says Francesca Guglielmo, senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
While greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the primary cause, the sudden surge in temperatures from 2023 is also partially driven by the El Niño climate phenomenon. Warm ocean temperatures in the Pacific will have contributed to overall warm global temperatures.
To read the full article, click here:
