(Dan Tri) - The issue of climate change is often associated with the limit of a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. What does that mean?
The past decade has been the world's hottest on record. (Photo: Chris Lewis).
Scientists have confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year since we started keeping track of global temperatures and the first year that Earth's temperature rose more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.
1.5 degrees is a "formidable" number because it is the target that world leaders agreed to set as the limit for global warming through the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.
However, while the above temperature record is nothing to celebrate, exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius does not mean we have violated the Paris Agreement.
What is the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change.
It was the first time that nearly all the countries in the world agreed to work together to limit global warming and adapt to climate change. 196 countries signed the agreement.
Australian students rally to demand government action on climate change. (Photo: Mark Metcalfe/ Getty Images).
Countries agreed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the long-term average global surface temperature "well below 2 degrees Celsius" above pre-industrial levels.
Countries also agreed to "strive" to limit temperature increase to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, using the period from 1850 to 1900 as the baseline.
What does 1.5 degrees Celsius warming mean?
A temperature increase of 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius on the surface can be very small. You will hardly feel the difference between a 27 degree day and a 29 degree day.
But Professor David Karoly, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, Australia, says a 1.5C global increase would mean more extremely hot days.
The 1.5°C target was set because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that exceeding that threshold risks causing much more severe impacts of climate change, including droughts, heat waves, coastal flooding from more frequent and intense storms.
Professor Karoly also added that no level of global warming is absolutely safe. We have seen the effects of climate change in the last 10 to 20 years.
Heat waves are increasing, human health is affected, extreme rainfall or drought in some areas is also increasing significantly, and forest fires are occurring more frequently.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the number of weather-related natural disasters has increased fivefold since 1970.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc-cong-nghe/nhet-do-toan-cau-nam-2024-vuot-15-do-c-co-pha-vo-thoa-thuan-paris-20250201061922982.htm
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