Paris Agreement 1.5C threshold could be breached within 4 years, new analysis warns

A new analysis from over 70 scientists across 17 countries warns that the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold could be breached in roughly four years. The Indicators of Global Climate Change report found that human-induced warming reached 1.37 degrees Celsius last year and is accelerating at about 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade. Record-high greenhouse gas levels and a drop in sulphur aerosols are driving the trend. The report notes that carbon dioxide emission growth is slowing, but researchers say society needs to massively increase decarbonization efforts during this critical decade. The findings were published in the journal Earth System Science Data and highlight that the rate of heat accumulation in the Earth system points to high levels of future warming if emissions are not cut faster.