The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday there is now about a 40% chance that the annual average global temperature will temporarily reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years.
It added that the chances of the threshold being breached are increasing with time.
The 1.5-degree marker has been identified by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a key tipping point beyond which the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages will increase dramatically.
“These are more than just statistics,”…
