World getting ever closer to 1.5°C limit, warns WMO chief

2023 is on track to be the hottest year ever and the last 10 years have proven to be the warmest decade so far. These are worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt and heatwaves, lie immediately ahead.This is the warning issued by Petteri Taalas, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General, who spoke to UN News in Dubai, ahead of the launch of the agency’s provisional State of the Global Climate report on the opening day of COP28.He told Sachin Gaur that the average temperature for the year has now increased to 1.4 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times – very close to the 1.5 degrees target limit as laid out by the Paris climate agreement in 2015.