First year-long breach of 1.5C limit

THE Earth has heated up by more than the 1.5C ‘safety limit’ across a full 12-month period for the first time.

Temperature data shows that until the end of last month, the planet was 1.52C hotter on average than the 1 50-1900 era, before global warming began escalating.

And last month was the hottest January ever recorded, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

Countries agreed at United Nations climate talks in Paris in 2015 to keep warming well below 2C (35.6F) and aim to limit it to 1.5C, regarded as crucial to preventing the most severe consequences.

But while the temperature overshot the 1.5C mark, scientists said it would have to be breached consistently for more than two decades for the limit to be ‘broken’.

Last year rising temperatures were linked to an array of extreme weather, including droughts in the Amazon basin, record temperatures in southern Europe, wildfires in South America and record rainfall in California.

Johan Rockstrom, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said: ‘We see the cost, the social costs and economic costs. 1.5 is a very big number and it hurts us really badly.’

Matt Patterson, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oxford, said the 1.5C was ‘a significant milestone’. However, some scientists have said the 1.5C aim can no longer feasibly be met, and have urged governments to act faster to cut carbon dioxide emissions to limit the amount of overshoot.

Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, said: ‘Unless global emissions are urgently brought down to zero, the world will soon fly past the safety limits set out in the Paris agreement.’