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Climate forecast says we may break the record for warmest year by 2025

The world is likely to break the record for the hottest year before 2025, according to the UK Met Office, which says there is an outside chance temperatures briefly overshoot the toughest target of the Paris climate deal
Temperatures soared during a heatwave in Paris in 2019
Edward Berthelot/Getty

A new world record for hottest year may be set before 2025, according to the UK Met Office, which says there is an outside chance temperatures will temporarily overshoot the toughest target of the Paris climate deal.

The , with the title of warmest year held by 2016, when climate change and the El Niño phenomenon drove temperatures 1.16°C above pre-industrial levels. In a using 20 computer models, the Met Office says today there is a more than 66 per cent chance that the 2016 record will be beaten between 2020 and 2024.

“It’s really a sign the planet is warming. To get another [record] in the next five years is consistent with the warming trend,” says Doug Smith at the Met Office.

The group’s forecast shows that any one year between 2020 and 2024 is likely to be between 1.06°C and 1.62°C warmer, meaning it could be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the target world leaders have pledged to “pursue efforts” to avoid.

However, one year above the threshold would be symbolic rather than a sign the Paris target has been irrevocably breached. For the Paris goals, the consistent annual norm across several years is what matters. The chance of one year before 2025 being more than 1.5°C warmer is also low, less than 10 per cent, in the Met Office analysis. Still, if the milestone did come to pass, Smith says: “It would be the first indication that we are starting to get close [to the Paris limit].”

The global average masks the fact that some regions are already being hit by much hotter temperatures. In 2019, Australia had its hottest year ever, at 1.52°C above average, and Europe had its warmest December too, .

Article amended on 7 February 2020

We corrected the attribution of the quotes; and we corrected the period that was Europe’s warmest.

Topics: Climate change