Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is now impossible

In recent months, scientists had already reached this conclusion individually. On Thursday, June 19, renowned French researchers – former authors for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte – asserted it collectively and unequivocally for the first time: The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, established by the Paris Agreement on climate change 10 years ago, "is now longer attainable."
Backing up their assertion, which is supported by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Météo-France, the French national meteorological service, is a study presenting a clinical overview of global warming and confirming its acceleration, to which these institutions contributed. The study was published Thursday in the journal Earth System Science Data and was signed more broadly by 61 scientists from 17 different countries.
For the third consecutive year, these researchers updated the key climate indicators from the 2021 report by Working Group 1 of the IPCC. "Our work helps fill a gap caused by the long publication timeline of IPCC reports, as the next one is not expected until the end of the decade," explained Aurélien Ribes, a researcher at the National Center for Meteorological Research and co-author of the study.

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In recent months, scientists had already reached this conclusion individually. On Thursday, June 19, renowned French researchers – former authors for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte – asserted it collectively and unequivocally for the first time: The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, established by the Paris Agreement on climate change 10 years ago, "is now longer attainable." Backing up their assertion, which is supported by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Météo-France, the French national meteorological service, is a study presenting a clinical overview of global warming and confirming its acceleration, to which these institutions contributed. The study was published Thursday in the journal Earth System Science Data and was signed more broadly by 61 scientists from 17 different countries. For the third consecutive year, these researchers updated the key climate indicators from the 2021 report by Working Group 1 of the IPCC. "Our work helps fill a gap caused by the long publication timeline of IPCC reports, as the next one is not expected until the end of the decade," explained Aurélien Ribes, a researcher at the National Center for Meteorological Research and co-author of the study.