Expected CO2 levels in 2024 threaten 1.5C warming limit

PARIS, Jan 19 (AFP): Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere this year will exceed key trajectories for limiting warming to 1.5C, Britain's Met Office predicted Friday, with researchers reaffirming that that only "drastic" emissions cuts can keep the target in sight.
Rising emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are set to be compounded in 2024 by the cyclical El Nino weather phenomenon, which reduces the ability of tropical forests to absorb carbon.
The Met forecast this will drive a "relatively large" rise in annual average CO2 concentrations measured this year at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii -- around 2.84 parts per million (ppm) higher than in 2023.
Researchers said that will likely take the world outside the main pathways set out by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- the more ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.