Battle to halt global heating at 1.5 degrees is lost - UN
UN environment officials have conceded that the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is now unavoidable. The focus must shift toward managing the overshoot and implementing rapid reversal strategies to mitigate irreversible climate impacts.
Why it matters
This admission marks a major shift in global climate policy, signaling that previous international targets are no longer achievable and that adaptation to higher temperatures is now necessary.
The battle to keep global heating from passing the agreed 1.5-degree threshold has been lost, United Nations environment chiefs have conceded.
In their most explicit forecast yet, they say the target being exceeded is “unavoidable” and some of the effects of this will be “irreversible”.
They say the emphasis must now switch from trying to avoid hitting 1.5 degrees to limiting the extent and duration of the overshoot. New policies and technologies will be needed to halt the rise and begin a rapid reversal to 1.5 degrees.
“The rules of the game are now changing,” said climate scientist Debra Roberts, one of the authors of the Limiting Overshoot report for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
“We now have to reconfigure our policies for an exceedance of 1.5 degrees. None of our plans are prepared for that.”
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