Experts: 2023 could be a turning point in global warming; the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C has failed

The Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius has “effectively failed,” scientists said at the end of September at a congress on extreme weather in Hamburg. Scientists and experts see a missed opportunity to stabilise the climate system with relatively little effort. In the view of conference participants, much of climate change will continue unchecked, meaning that massive changes to our planet can no longer be prevented.

“We have to accept that the 1.5-degree target will be exceeded,” said Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

Massive changes to the global climate are now inevitable, and humanity will have to make considerable efforts and investments to try to keep warming below 2 °C, congress participants concluded. At the current pace, the world is on course for an increase of 3 °C in the global average temperature.

Experts say 2023 marks the year when extreme weather events will reach a level at which climate change and its human causes can no longer be denied. Alongside calling for decisive climate protection, scientists are also urging decisive action on adaptation and the irreversible consequences of further global warming.