May 29, 2025 – Earth is likely to cross a key climate threshold in two years

Seven years ago, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the world wouldn’t warm 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels until 2040.

Then two years ago, the group predicted the world would pass that threshold between 2030 and 2035.

Now, new data from the World Meteorological Organization released on May 28, 2025 indicates that Earth will cross this point in just two years.

The accelerated timeline is due to higher-than-expected temperatures over the past few years, diminishing air pollution that cooled the Earth and greenhouse gas emissions that continue to rise globally despite the growth of renewable energy.

And it means that irreversible tipping points in the climate system — like the melting of Arctic ice sheets or the wide-scale collapse of coral reefs — are closer at hand than scientists previously believed.

Read the full Wahington Post article on this topic by Shannon Osaka at https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/29/15degrees-celsius-world-meteorological-organization

The primary source of information for the article is the WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update 2025

June 5, 2025