The United Nations has warned that global temperatures are expected to remain at or near historic highs over the next five years, raising fresh concerns over the accelerating pace of climate change and the world’s ability to keep warming within internationally agreed limits.
In its latest climate outlook released on Thursday, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the UN’s weather and climate agency, said there is an 86 per cent likelihood that at least one year between 2026 and 2030 will surpass 2024 as the warmest year ever recorded.
The agency also projected a 75 per cent chance that the average global temperature over the 2026–2030 period will exceed the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a benchmark established under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
According to the WMO, all of the 11 hottest years ever recorded have occurred since 2015, underscoring what scientists describe as an intensifying global warming trend largely driven by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
“Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels in the next five years,” the agency stated in its Global Annual-to-Decadal Climate Update.
