Temperature limits the world agreed to avoid are looming into view.
The global temperature has been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for almost two years now. The reason, overwhelmingly, is that greenhouse gas emissions are at record highs from the burning of fossil fuels and forests.
In a new analysis, the World Meteorological Organization has predicted that global average warming will remain above 1.5°C for the rest of this decade. By some measure, this would place the world nearly halfway to the lower limit of the Paris agreement, which urged countries to avoid warming of 1.5°C as a 20-year average.
