The impacts of global warming continue to accelerate as near-record temperatures threaten to push the world temporarily past the iconic threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius this year.
The warnings by scientists at the World Meteorological Organization and other leading institutions come as dozens of countries meet in Brazil for the United Nation’s COP30 climate talks with the bleak backdrop of global temperatures on track to be the second- or third-warmest in recorded history.
Average temperatures from January through August hovered around 1.42 degrees Celsius above their preindustrial levels, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported days before the conference began. Global leaders gathered along the edge of the Amazon amid anxiety around President Donald Trump’s recent pressure campaign to derail what would have been the world’s first carbon tax on shipping pollution, and as most nations are in jeopardy of missing their climate targets.
It’s unclear if temperatures for the full calendar year will break the 1.5 degree mark.
