Representatives of the parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change are seen after adopting the rulebook of the Paris Agreement at the 24th Conference of Parties to the treaty in Katowice, Poland, on Dec. 15, 2018. (Mainichi/Kazuhiro Igarashi)

Japan may see more searing summer temps even if Paris Agreement goal met

TOKYO - The number of observation points in Japan that see the mercury soar to a sizzling 35 degrees Celsius will likely rise in the future even if the Paris Agreement goal to limit temperature increases is achieved, researchers say.
A research team including members of the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency ran a simulation on climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the results, they estimated that if the temperature were to rise 2 degrees from levels before the Industrial Revolution, or roughly 1 degree from now, the total number of observation points across Japan where the temperature reaches 35 degrees or more over the summer would increase by 1.8 times, from some 2,500 to about 4,400.

The Paris Agreement, adopted at the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference, sets a goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. It also encourages signatories to further try to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190523/p2a/00m/0na/013000c