In September we went past 1.5 degrees. In November, we tipped over 2 degrees for the first time. What's going on?

By Andrew King, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne

In September, the world passed 1.5°C of warming. Two months later, we hit 2°C of warming. It’s fair to wonder what is going on.

What we’re seeing is not runaway climate change. These are daily spikes, not the long-term pattern we would need to say the world is now 2 degrees hotter than it was in the pre-industrial period.

These first breaches of temperature limits are the loudest alarms yet. They come as the United Nations Environment Program warns the world is still on a path…

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