U.S. pullout from Paris accord: Temperature could rise by 0.3°C, says U.N.

This July 6, 2015 photo shows the marshy, tundra landscape surrounding Newtok seen from a plane outside Newtok, Alaska. When Ministers from the eight states of the Arctic and representatives of the region’s native peoples met in May 2017 in Alaska, the signs of global warming were all around them, from the exotic new flies buzzing in the boreal forest to the rapidly thawing mud by the lakesides.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate pact could “in a worst case scenario” add a 0.3°C rise in global temperatures over the 21st century, the UN said on Friday.

The head of the World Meteorological Organisation’s atmospheric research and environment department, Deon Terblanche, underscored, however, that the likely impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s widely-condemned decision remains far from clear.

“We haven’t run new models overnight but the indications are that it could be in the worst case scenario in the order of 0.3°C,” Mr. Terblanche told reporters in Geneva, referring to a possible rise over pre-industrial temperatures.

“That is the worst case scenario and this is probably not what will happen,” he added.

Under the Paris deal agreed in 2015, world nations vowed steps to keep the worldwide rise in temperatures “well below” 2°C from pre-industrial times.