Climate target already in doubt

A global warming limit agreed by world leaders with great fanfare has come close to being broken just eight months on, it is reported.

Climate change scientists have warned it may be nearly impossible to keep global warming below the 1.5C target set at the Paris negotiations in December after temperatures peaked at 1.38C above pre-industrial levels in February and March.

Met Office data analysed by Reading University professor Ed Hawkins showed average global temperatures were more than 1C over for every month except one over the past year, the Observer newspaper in Britain reports.