Global Warming Threshold Breached for a Whole Year: What Does This Mean?

For the first time in history, the 1.5° Celsius temperature threshold has been breached for an entire year.

GARIMA SADHWANI

February 16, 2024

Globally, the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature threshold has been breached for an entire year, in the period between February 2023 and January 2024, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has stated. 

This report by the EU’s climate service comes a few months after the United Nations Environment Programme in November 2023 released its annual global Emissions Gap Report, which said,

“86 days have been recorded with temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels this year.”

This raises grave concerns about where we are heading ecologically.

To help contextualise the report and put things in perspective, The Quint spoke with climate experts – Abinash Mohanty, Sector Head, Climate Change & Sustainability at IPE Global, and Expert Reviewer of IPCC- AR(6), and Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment.

IS THE TEMPERATURE BREACH AN ANOMALY OR THE NEW NORMAL?

Global temperatures are rising. In the last one year, the average increase in temperature has been 1.5 degrees Celsius. When the temperature increases, the resultant climate change and extreme weather events become more intense, frequent, and long-lasting.

Abinash Mohanty tells The Quint, “When we say that any body temperature over 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit means that you have a fever, it’s the same way we look at the global temperature with a base limit as well.”

He adds that we need to look at this rise in temperature from a two-fold lens to reach any conclusive thoughts. 

• Is the rise in temperature over a certain period largely due to carbon emissions triggered by unsustainable anthropocentric activities? 
• Or is it a long-term breach, compared to pre-industrial levels, that is becoming the ‘new normal’?

For the former, Mohanty says, “Some aggressive steps can be taken to contain the situation.” 

But if the warming is the ‘new normal’, “The breach is irreversible in such cases because the damage is already done. So the only way to go ahead is to ‘adapt’ to the irreversible and ‘mitigate any further rise scenarios’,” says Mohanty.

In any case, there is cause for worry, says Anumita Roychowdhury. 2023 was one of the warmest years in history. January 2024 has also been noted to be one of the warmest Januarys in history, she adds.

To read the full article, click here:

https://www.thequint.com/climate-change/temperature-breach-global-warming-climate-change