The world is increasingly likely to experience global warming of 1.5C within the next five years because of record greenhouse gas levels, according to new research that adds to alarming evidence of how quickly the planet is heating.

There is a 48 per cent chance earth’s annual temperature will exceed 1.5C of warming, compared with pre-industrial levels, in one of the years between now and 2026, the World Meteorological Organization and the UK Met Office said in a report published on Tuesday. That probability is likely to keep rising, it added.

The chance of a 1.5C exceedance for the subsequent five-year period was close to zero just seven years ago, according to the data. “If we’re going to keep to 1.5C, that may be difficult now,” said Leon Hermanson, a Met Office researcher who led the report.