2015 set to be the hottest year on record, says UN

GENEVA, Wednesday

The year 2015 is shaping up to be the hottest on record, the UN’s weather agency said on Wednesday, days before a UN summit opens in Paris to craft a climate rescue pact.

Based on data for the first 10 months of the year, “We feel very confident... that 2015 will be the warmest year on record,” said Michel Jarraud, head of the World Meteorological Organization.

The WMO said land and sea temperatures were likely to surpass those of 2014 as the highest since record-keeping began.

“This is all bad news for the planet,” Mr Jarraud told reporters in Geneva.

The UN agency usually waits to have a full year’s worth of data before drawing such conclusions but said it wanted its preliminary findings “to inform negotiators at the UN Climate Change Conference.”

More than 145 world leaders are set to gather in Paris from Monday for a conference seeking to cap average global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above mid-19th century levels.

BINDING MECHANISM

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday insisted the Paris agreement must include “a binding review mechanism under international law” to make sure countries’ carbon-curbing actions are ramped up until the 2 C target comes into focus.

Based on current voluntary pledges, Earth is on track for 3 C. Alarmingly, WMO said the global average surface temperature would this year pass “the symbolic and significant milestone” of 1 C above the pre-industrial era.

According to Mr Jarraud, “we have already warmed the atmosphere by more than half.

“This is of great concern,” he said, and pointed out that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere broke a new record this year.

These gases can remain in the atmosphere for centuries and will continue warming the climate long after emissions are cut.

“Time is really not on our side,” Jarraud said. The 2 C target remained achievable, but  “the more we wait to take action, the more difficult it will be.”

“We have the knowledge and the tools to act. We have a choice,” said Jarraud. “Future generations will not.”

Sea-surface temperatures hit new records last year, and WMO said they were “likely to equal or surpass that record in 2015.”

Since oceans have been absorbing more than 90 per cent of the energy accumulated in the climate system from human emissions of greenhouse gases, temperatures at greater depths are also rising, as are sea levels, the agency said.