“Last warning”: Global temperatures have risen by 1.1 degrees since pre-industrial times

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 °C since pre-industrial times. In light of the latest report, the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C therefore seems at least harder to achieve.

The goal set at the conference in Paris in 2016 is moving further out of reach in light of the latest IPCC report. As the Swiss panel said on its website, however, effective tools are available to prevent further increases in global temperatures. They simply need to be deployed on a much larger scale and made more effective.

The panel frames its latest report as “humanity’s last warning” to limit global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Like its previous edition, the report warns of serious consequences if global temperatures exceed the target set by the Paris Agreement. These include extreme weather events, rising sea levels, extreme temperature increases in some parts of the world (1.1 °C is an average figure) and irreversible damage to ecosystems.