Comment

The role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in providing science input into the Paris Agreement and its critical five yearly Global Stocktake is under challenge.

Two new papers published in Nature Climate Change today ask whether the recent global temperatures at or exceeding 1.5° warming above preindustrial mean the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit has been reached or will soon be?

Unprecedented sea surface temperatures in June have already fuelled a hurricane that has flattened communities in the Caribbean - the earliest of its kind. With forecasts warning of more to come, our experts get into the numbers of why this years' season could be the worst on record.

The latest Plenary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just concluded in Sofia, Bulgaria. Despite days of deliberation, delegates were not able to agree on delivering the next round of reports in time for the second global stocktake, despite a request to do so from governments in the first global stocktake outcome agreed in Dubai last year.

Extreme heat and humidity led to the tragic deaths of over 1,300 Hajj pilgrims this year. For the Hajj to remain physically possible during summer months, the Saudi government needs to adopt effective adaptation measures and play its part in the global move away from fossil fuels.

Many vulnerable people in South Asia are already struggling to protect themselves from unbearably high temperatures – which are set to worsen.