Climate Crisis: UN Says 1.5°C Overshoot Now a Reality to Navigate

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Paris: The United Nations has warned that the world is likely to exceed the key 1.5°C global warming threshold in the coming years, moving the climate issue from preventing an overshoot to managing the consequences.

In a groundbreaking assessment, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) stated that any period above 1.5°C should be kept as short and limited as feasible. Scientists have cautioned that warming above the threshold raises the danger of extreme weather, ice-sheet collapse, coral reef loss, and other irreversible effects.

The world has already warmed by around 1.4°C compared with pre-industrial levels, mostly because of fossil-fuel emissions. The research also states that the last three years have been the hottest on record.

According to UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, the 1.5°C target remains the target, but countries must now prepare to approach it "from above". UN Secretary-General António Guterres has stated that it is still possible to reduce global warming to less than 1.5°C by the end of the century.

To reduce temperatures after an overshoot, the paper recommends deep and rapid cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as carbon dioxide removal. However, climate campaigners have challenged the emphasis on carbon removal, stressing that it should not be used as an excuse to delay reducing fossil-fuel emissions.

The UN emphasised that every fraction of a degree counts, pushing states to step up climate action even as the 1.5°C target becomes increasingly difficult to meet.