Australia's average temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees, raising alarm over climate goals

Australia has recorded an average temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time since records began, signaling a concerning trend as the world moves closer to exceeding the Paris Accord's target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Two years ago, Australia’s temperatures had risen by an average 1.47 degrees since records began in 1910. This year, average temperatures in Australia have risen by 1.5 degrees, while global averaged temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees since “reliable” records began in 1850, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“Globally we’re at about 1.2 degrees because that encapsulates the surface air temperature just above the sea level, but Australia and other land masses are at around 1.5 degrees because the land heats more quickly than the water,” Dr Jaci Brown, climate research manager at the CSIRO said.

Scientists have repeatedly said Earth would need to average 1.5 degrees of warming over two or three decades to be in technical breach of the Paris threshold.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in 2018 that even if global temperatures were limited to a 1.5 degree rise on pre-industrial levels, seas would rise by .4 metres.

“It’s looking increasingly unlikely that we’ll be able to stop at 1.5 degrees,” Brown said. “[More likely], there’ll be an overshoot and we’ll have to try to bring it back.”

Sea surface temperatures have risen by an average 1.08 degrees since 1900. Dr Karl Braganza, national manager of climate services at the bureau, said the value of mapping Australia’s changing climate over 14 years was scientists could demonstrate the changes were greater than climatic variability.

“When we look at the most significant sea surface temperature changes, they tend to be along the east coast, particularly down in the Tasman off the coast of southern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania,” he said.

“So we’re seeing an increased transport of heat from the north to the south through the east Australia current, and that’s associated with quite significant ecosystem changes. So we’re seeing tropical fish and other warm water marine organisms appear further south than we once used to, and that’s quite noticeable to the fisheries and scientists.”

News.Az