'Climate hell' exit needed as world braced for year-long breach of 1.5C by 2028

Scientists have predicted a year-long breach of global temperatures above 1.5C indutrial levels by 2028, the World Meteorological Organisation warned.

Researchers revealed that last month was the warmest May on record globally - and the twelfth consecutive month with record-high temperatures.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said: “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet.

“We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. And the good news is that we have control of the wheel. The battle to limit temperature rise to 1.5C will be won or lost in the 2020s – under the watch of leaders today.”

The world's fossil fuel industries should be banned from advertising to help save the world from climate change, Mr Guterres said.

He called coal, oil and gas corporations the “godfathers of climate chaos” who had distorted the truth and deceived the public for decades.

The world’s average temperature should not exceed that of preindustrial times by more than 1.5C if the worst impacts of climate change are to be avoided.

But researchers today said there is a 80% likelihood of at least one year between 2024 and 2028 temporarily exceeding 1.5C.

And scientists said there is almost a one in two chance - a 47% likelihood - the average temperature will exceed 1.5C over the full five-year period.

This means it is likely that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record, beating 2023.

Stephen Cornelius, World Wide Fund for Nature’s deputy climate and energy lead, said: “The planet's thermostat is cranked up, with records being broken more regularly than when Usain Bolt was competing.

“Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters, as the hotter it gets the more harm climate change causes people and nature. We need to slash greenhouse gas emissions or we’ll overshoot way past 1.5C of global warming.

“To limit warming we must phase out fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas - and swiftly move to 100% clean renewable energy, as well as to protect and restore natural ecosystems.”

Each of the past 12 months has set a new global temperature record for the time of year.

Carlo Buontempo, C3S Director, comments: “It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak. While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.”

“We are living in unprecedented times, but we also have unprecedented skill in monitoring the climate and this can help inform our actions.

“This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold but if we manage to stabilise the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere in the very near future we might be able to return to these “cold” temperatures by the end of the century.”