IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C

October 08, 2018

The IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C clearly establishes that the world has already warmed by 1.0°C since pre-industrial levels. Some regions have warmed even more. India, for instance, has warmed by about 1.2°C.1 The impact of this warming is already visible and is being experienced across the world. This year alone, various parts of the world was battered by extreme weather events in some form or the other — be it heat waves or drought in Europe and China, forest fires in the US, dust storms and unprecedented rainfall in parts of India, including historically high rainfall in Kerala and high precipitation in Japan and other island nations. With a further 0.5°C warming, the effects would be far greater and more pronounced than what science had already envisaged. The IPCC’s 1.5°C Report gives out the following prognosis: