The UN’s forecast for global warming is about 15 percent too low, which means end-of-century temperatures could be 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than currently predicted, said a study released recently.
The prediction makes the already daunting challenge of capping global warming at “well under” 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — the cornerstone goal of the 196-nation Paris Agreement—all the more difficult, the authors said.
“Our results suggest that achieving any given global temperature stabilization target will require steeper greenhouse gas emissions reductions than previously calculated,” they wrote.
A half-degree increase on the thermometer could translate into devastating consequences.
With only a single degree Celsius of global warming so far, the planet has already seen a crescendo of deadly droughts, heat waves and super storms engorged by rising seas.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which provides the scientific foundation for global climate policy, projects an increase in the earth’s average surface temperature of about 4.5 Celsius by 2100 if carbon pollution continues unabated.
