2015-19 in route to be the hottest 5 years yet: UN

GENEVA: A UN report curated by the world’s leading climate agencies has found out that the average global temperature between 2015-19 is on track to be the hottest 5-year period on record till date.

 “It is currently estimated to be 1.1°C above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times and 0.2°C warmer than 2011-2015,” said the report titled United in Science, a synthesis of key findings.

The report also showed that the extent of Arctic summer sea ice has declined at a rate of 12 per cent per decade over the past 40 years, with the four lowest values between 2015 and 2019.

Overall, the amount of ice lost from the Antarctic ice sheet increased by a factor of six each year between 1979 and 2017, while glacier loss for 2015-19 is also the highest for any five-year period on record.

The report found that rather than falling, carbon dioxide, one of the chief of greenhouse gases, grew two per cent in 2018, reaching a record high of 37 billion tonnes.

More importantly, there is also no sign yet of reaching what is known as “peak emissions,” the point at which levels will start to fall.