ENVIRONMENT
Next year set to be hottest on record
Carbon emissions and weather patterns may push 2024 beyond ‘milestone’ 1.5C rise
Lake Titicaca in South America is edging towards a record low water level, exacerbated by the El Niño climate phenomenon
CLAUDIA MORALES/REUTERS
Next year is set to be the hottest on record and could be the first in which global warming exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial times, the Met Office has said.
The Met Office forecasts that 2024 will be between 1.34C and 1.58C warmer than the pre-industrial average, with a central estimate of 1.46C, making it the 11th year in a row in which temperatures have been more than a degree warmer.
In the Paris agreement of 2015, 195 signatories pledged to try to limit warming to 1.5C, beyond which hotter temperatures could cause irreversible changes to the natural world.
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Nick Dunstone, a climate scientist at the Met Office, who led the study, said: “For the first time, we are forecasting a reasonable chance of a year
