UN: The world is on course to warm by 2.8°C by 2100
The world is hurtling toward between 2.6 and 2.8°C (5.04°F) of warming above preindustrial levels by 2100 barring major new steps, a UN analysis warns.
Why it matters: That’s way beyond the 1.5°C target the Paris climate agreement set to avoid the most disastrous impacts of climate change.
Driving the news: The 2022 “Emissions Gap Report,” out this morning, shows the difference between where countries’ emissions need to be to meet the Paris Agreement’s targets, and what all of their pledged emissions cuts would actually achieve.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.