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Is the world warming faster than we thought and are current targets signed-off by world leaders under the Paris climate summit agreements enough to tackle the most damaging effects of global warming in the years to come?

New evidence from the EU's climate service, Copernicus, highlights that for the first time, the world was 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels for a whole year.

Keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees was the target set at the Paris summit less than a decade ago. A combination of greenhouse gas emissions and dramatic sea temperature rises are to blame, scientists say.

Newsday heard what this new data means from Professor Katherine Hayhoe, chief climate scientist at the Nature Conservancy in Houston, Texas and author of ‘Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World’:

"What it serves as is yet another reminder that as long as our carbon emissions continue to grow temperatures will continue to increase... every bit of warming matters. Global leaders need to realise this is not about saving the planet, it's about saving us. The can cannot be kicked down the road further, there is no road left."

(Pic: A lignite burning power station in Germany releases smoke, steam and carbon dioxide; Credit: Getty Images)

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