A growing body of scientific evidence now suggests that, due to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emission levels in the atmosphere, the world is on track to overshoot the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C target within the next three years, pushing the planet beyond a critical threshold faster than previously feared.

The dire warning comes from the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming, led by a group of international researchers and published in Earth System Science Data earlier this month. The report was signed by over 60 scientists across 17 countries.