Energy & Environment

The Big Story

World could soon hit 1.5 degree threshold

The world may be on track to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming in about three years, a group of scientists warned in a new paper.

Researchers have called for keeping the planet's warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

An update on the state of global warming published this week says that if 2024 levels of planet-warming emissions continue, there's a 50 percent chance the world will warm to 1.5 degrees in a little more than three years.

Researchers note this estimate is "not expected to correspond exactly to the time that 1.5 °C global warming level is reached" due to a few uncertainties.

However, the finding paints a stark picture to how close the world is to passing that threshold.

The 1.5 degree figure is partly symbolic — the difference between 1.49 degrees and 1.51 degrees, for example, is not expected to necessarily be the difference between survival and doom.

However, there are certain "tipping points" after which climate damage becomes irreversible — like the melting of the Greenland ice sheet or the collapse of ocean current systems.

The paper says that currently, the world is estimated to have warmed 1.36 degrees Celsius (2.45 degrees Fahrenheit) and is currently warming at a rate of about 0.27 degrees Celsius (0.49 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.

Read more at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill's Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.

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