Global warming will likely cross dangerous 1.5 C threshold within 5 years, UN report warns

In February, wildfires fueled by severe drought consumed forests, grasslands and wetlands in northeastern Argentina, burning an estimated 40% of the Ibera National Park.
In February, wildfires fueled by severe drought consumed forests, grasslands and wetlands in northeastern Argentina, burning an estimated 40% of the Ibera National Park. (Image credit: Joaquin Meabe/Getty Images)

Unprecedented global temperature rises will likely see the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.6 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold breached at some point in the next five years, a United Nations (U.N.) report predicts.

The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) gave the stark warning in its latest annual assessment. According to the WMO, there is a 66% chance that annual mean global surface temperatures will temporarily breach the threshold of a 1.5C rise above pre-industrial levels. This would be the first time in human history that such a rise had been recorded.

Scientists have warned that crossing the 1.5C  threshold greatly increases the risks of encountering tipping points that could unleash irreversible climate breakdown — such as the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets; extreme heat waves; severe droughts; water stress; and extreme weather across large parts of the globe. 

Related: Significant El Niño event is almost guaranteed this year, experts warn. And it could be a big one.

Around 200 countries pledged to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C or under in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Now, even if just temporarily, that limit could be breached for the first time.

"A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory," Petteri Taalas, the secretary general of the WMO, said in a statement. "This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared."

El Niño occurs when trade winds, which typically push warm water westwards across the Pacific Ocean from South America to Asia, weaken, keeping more of the warm water in place. This strongly affects climate patterns around the world, making South America wetter and bringing drought (and sometimes famine) to regions such as Australia, Indonesia, Northern China and Northeastern Brazil. 

In the U.S., El Niño tends to make northern regions warmer and dryer, and southern regions wetter, and because it causes warmer water to spread further and remain near the surface of the ocean, it also heats up the atmosphere around the world. 

The latest WMO report covers the years 2023 to 2027. It says there is a 98% chance that one of the next five years will be the hottest ever — exceeding 2016's 2.3 F (1.28 C) record temperature rise

The chances of higher temperature swings are also increasing: The odds of breaching the 1.5C temperature threshold was near zero in 2015; it rose to 48% in 2022; and is now 66% just a year later.

The researchers said much of this warming would be unevenly distributed. The Arctic, for instance, will see temperatures fluctuate by three times as much as the rest of the world, accelerating melting that could severely impact weather systems such as the jet stream and the North Atlantic current — crucial systems for the regulation of temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

Rainfall, meanwhile, is expected to decrease across Central America, Australia, Indonesia and the Amazon. Deforestation, climate change, and burnings have caused the gigantic rainforest to lose some of its resilience since the 2000s, leading to concern among scientists that it may cross a tipping point that could transform it into savanna.

The report notes there is only a 32% chance that the five-year mean will exceed the 1.5C threshold, but this average has nonetheless risen dramatically since 2015, when it was near-zero.

"This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5 C level specified in the Paris Agreement which refers to long-term warming over many years," Taalas said. "However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5 C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency."

Ben Turner
Staff Writer

Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.

  • Inappropriate Comment Guy
    What a load a rubbish!
    Reply
  • Giovani
    admin said:
    The U.N. weather agency has warned that El Niño and human-caused climate change will likely push temperatures into "uncharted territory."

    Global warming will likely cross dangerous 1.5 C threshold within 5 years, UN report warns : Read more
    The global warming debate has many twists and turns. My opinion is anchored in the facts gleaned over the years in witnessing hysteria and agendas pursued.
    If all was accomplished by removing human generated pollution from earth, it would very quickly become colder. Humankind has artificially heated the earth in contrast to the interglacial situation that is real.
    We are supposed to be heading back into a glacial setting. It should be cold. In a way count your blessings though our pollution-oriented species is also spoiling this earth.
    Reply
  • PodCastAllLangs
    Inappropriate Comment Guy said:
    What a load a rubbish!
    Care to elaborate, specifically?
    Reply
  • Giovani
    My personal take on the definite evidence of earth warming is that if humankind were able to realize the goal of zero emissions, we would experience the interglacial period turning cold.
    I believe humans have artificially warmed the planet, and if anything, we've gone too far in affecting the environment.
    The earth would otherwise be heading into another ice age as has been the pattern for thousands of years. Ironically, we are in the customary mode of supreme human ego; everything must be about us in a closed loop of disinformation due to agendas corrupted by human frailty.
    Reply
  • rocketman67
    admin said:
    The U.N. weather agency has warned that El Niño and human-caused climate change will likely push temperatures into "uncharted territory."

    Global warming will likely cross dangerous 1.5 C threshold within 5 years, UN report warns : Read more
    And if you are wrong will you be the first to admit you were wrong ?
    I sincerely doubt it!
    Reply
  • Hartmann352
    There are opposing views on either side of the climate spectrum. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle.

    Click on this link:

    https://710wor.iheart.com/featured/mark-simone/content/2019-10-08-the-list-of-120-years-of-climate-scares-by-scientists/
    Hartmann352
    Reply