World can no longer avoid exceeding 1.5C threshold

The world has lost the opportunity to prevent global warming significantly exceeding the critical threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, according to a major new UN report.

Decades of inadequate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions mean that a significant overshoot of the temperature limit is now unavoidable.

The international community faces the much greater challenge of limiting the extent and duration of further warming and eventually bringing global temperatures back down.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has said global emissions would now need to fall by 18% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 69% by 2040, compared with 2025 levels, to keep warming to the lowest achievable overshoot of 1.5C.

However, even if governments fully implement their existing national climate commitments, emissions are expected to decline by just 11% to 15% by 2035.