UN Warns 1.5°C Warming Likely by 2029

The United Nations, through its World Meteorological Organization, issued a dire warning that there is a 70% chance global average warming will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius international benchmark between 2025 and 2029. This forecast follows 2023 and 2024 being the two hottest years on record, with the past decade being the warmest ever. The report highlights a growing negative impact on economies, daily lives, ecosystems, and the planet. Climate scientists now consider the 1.5 degrees Celsius target of the Paris Agreement increasingly impossible to achieve due to rising CO2 emissions. The United Kingdom — Met Office compiled these projections, which also indicate an 80% chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be warmer than 2024. Furthermore, there is an unprecedented 1% chance of exceeding 2 degrees Celsius of warming in the next five years. Recent extreme weather events, such as temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in China, nearly 52 degrees Celsius in the United Arab Emirates, and deadly winds in Pakistan, along with floods in Australia, France, Algeria, India, China, Ghana, and wildfires in Canada, underscore the dangerous level of warming already reached. Experts like Friederike Otto and Davide Faranda emphasize the urgent need to cut fossil fuel emissions and accelerate the transition to clean energy.