According to the UK Met Office, 2015 is expected to be by some distance the warmest year since the reliable global temperature record begins in 1850. 2016 will probably beat the record again. The cyclical El Nino effect is part of this – but not all. 

It was heartening, therefore, that 2015 ended with good news in the shape of a long-awaited global agreement to tackle the climate crisis. The key elements of the Paris Agreement (PDF) include a long-term goal of 'holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree Centigrade'.

Climate change increasingly influences the context for all development action but the ways in which that influence is felt will not be static.

A big challenge for 2016 will be to find ways to link local action for rights and inclusion to climate action at the global scale.