40% Chance That Temperature Limit Will be Met by 2025, According to Study
It is increasingly likely that the lower of two temperature limits set by the Paris Agreement on climate change will be reached in one of the next five years. A major study by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) puts this probability at a 40% chance of at least one year being 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial level; this is the lower of two temperature limits set by the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The analysis is based on modelling by the UK Met Office and climate researchers in 10 countries including the US and China. It shows that the outlook is becoming less optimistic as time goes on as in the last decade, it was estimated that the chance of any one year reaching the 1.5C threshold was only 20%.
Read more from the BBC about the study.
Many Countries Report Fall in COVID-19 Deaths Compared to Peak
A number of countries are reporting falling deaths from COVID-19 after suffering a peak in the last few months.
- For the UK, no new deaths were announced on Tuesday which was welcomed news by all.
- The trends in the US and the European Union are similarly optimistic, if just a bit behind. The latest data reveals the US is averaging ~600 daily deaths from COVID, way down on the peak of 3,400 seen back in January, with the EU numbers similar to those in the US.
- Some hope is emerging from an improving situation in India too. Confirmed cases there have been falling for the last 3 weeks (although they remain extremely high) and confirmed deaths have also begun to fall ever so slightly — although experts continue to believe the official numbers are, sadly, likely to be severely undercounting the reality.
- Undercounting is exactly what has been happening in Peru, which yesterday almost tripled its official COVID death toll to more than 180,000, after a government review. That leaves Peru with the highest COVID death rate of any country in the world (adjusted for population).
- It looks like Japan is passing its worst-ever peak of the pandemic too although questions are still being raised about the Tokyo Olympics still going ahead.
See more graphs like this from Chartr Daily.
New Hazard of the Month Announced!
WA Management’s new Hazard of the Month is the Environment, specifically making sure we are looking after it!
This coincides with two important Awareness Days taking place in June: World Environment Day on 5th June and World Ocean Day on 8th June.
This month, we will be releasing a number of blogs and resources for you to access including our Research Blog celebrating World Ocean Day with tips on how your business can help even if you are as far away from the ocean you can get! Look out for this being posted next week as well as many others throughout June.
For this month only, you can also get 10% off our Environmental Awareness and Resource Efficiency E-Learning courses with the code environment10! These courses are ideal for making sure your business is being as environmentally friendly as it can be, not only for the planet to ensure compliance with standards and regulations!
Free COVID-19 Online Training From WHO
If you are looking to ensure your employees are aware of COVID-19 safety measures in the workplace, the World Health Organisation (WHO) have a number of free online training resources you can use.
The COVID-19 and work: Staying healthy and safe at work during the COVID-19 pandemic, produced in collaboration with IOSH, covers how to:
- apply infection prevention and control (IPC) principles at your workplace.
- apply the hierarchy of control to COVID-19 at work.
- understand and contribute to worksite risk assessment for COVID-19 exposure.
- respond to an outbreak at your workplace.
- manage the health and safety of yourself and your workers throughout periods of worksite closures and teleworking.
- safely return to the workplace.
We would recommend this course to all our customers as a way to make sure you are making your workplace a COVID-safe environment as much as possible; this is also often required evidence for SSIPs and PQQs.
Access the course on the WHO website.