PARIS - Massive wildfires exposing millions to toxic smoke, drought shrivelling crops and key waterways, devastating storms packed record ocean temperatures – last year, the world got a taste of what to expect as it warms by 1.5°C.

For the first time on record, the Earth has endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5°C higher than in the pre-industrial era, the European climate monitor said on February 8.

It does not signal a breach of the more ambitious limit agreed by countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement – because it is measured as an average over two decades. (AFP, more at straitstimes.com)