June 21, 2024--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Amid a punishing heat dome that is making life miserable for an estimated 77 million people in the U.S., and after 2023 was certified the planet's hottest year on record, the Energy Institute (London, England) on June 20 released its annual statistical review of world energy for 2023. From a climate perspective, the news was not good.

Global temperatures rose about 1.5 degrees Celsius last year over pre-industrial times, speakers at the Energy Institute press conference said. The Paris Agreement of 2015 sought to limit long-term global average temperature gain to 1.5 degrees C, possibly 2 degrees C. Climate scientists have predicted that long-term average temperature gains beyond about 2 degrees C would trigger catastrophic events that would make large parts of the world uninhabitable.