Paris climate goal could be breached by 2029, EU scientists warn

Two fresh reports landed Thursday at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, cutting through the conference's upbeat mood. The European Union's Copernicus climate change service found that global warming has accelerated significantly since the 2015 Paris agreement. Climate Action Tracker, a nonprofit that analyzes climate policies, says the planet remains on track to warm nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

The timeline for the Paris pact's 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit threshold has collapsed. When the agreement was adopted, that benchmark — 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average — wasn't projected to be crossed until around 2045. Copernicus now says it could arrive as soon as 2029, after another decade of global climate summits.

Climate Action Tracker spells out what its projected rise would do: devastate coral reefs, disrupt agriculture and forests, and melt most of the world's ice. Both bulletins landed as a hard counterpoint to the green-tech pitches and happy-hour notices filling the Antalya conference.