This year is set to be among the hottest on record, sinking the world even deeper into the climate crisis and threatening “irreversible damage,” the United Nations says in a new report.Years 2023, 2024 and 2025 are set to be the hottest years ever recorded, with this year on track to be the second or third hottest ever in 176 years of record keeping, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in the report released on Thursday in advance of next week’s COP30 UN climate summit in Brazil.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe UN report offered some stark observations, including warnings that concentrations of greenhouse gases have grown to new record highs, locking in more heat for the future, while the past 11 years, 2015 to 2025, will individually have been the 11 warmest years.Together, these developments make “it clear that it will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5C [2.7F] in the next few years,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement, referring to the 2015 Paris climate accords.The legally binding pact limiting greenhouse gas emissions aimed to provide the world a roadmap for breaking away from fossil fuels that have powered the global economy since the Industrial Revolution and looked to limit global warming to well below 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, and to 1.5C if possible.But the world has fallen short of its Paris obligations, with the WMO now saying limiting global heating to the goals of the 2015 agreement is virtually impossible.“This unprecedented streak of high temperatures, combined with last year’s record increase in …
