World must navigate 'reality' of 1.5C overshoot, says UN
A new UN Environment Programme report states that the 1.5C global warming threshold will be surpassed, shifting the focus from prevention to managing the consequences of an overshoot. Experts emphasize the need to reconfigure climate governance to adapt to this new reality.
Why it matters
This marks a significant shift in international climate policy, acknowledging that previous mitigation targets are no longer sufficient to prevent warming.
The UN's Environment Programme has said that a rise in global temperatures of 1.5C will be surpassed and that the challenge has now "shifted from avoiding overshoot to navigating it".
The United Nations has outlined how the world might bring global temperature increased back to 1.5C once the milestone target is breached in a first-of-its-kind assessment.
The 2015 Paris Agreement commits countries to limit the global average temperature rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last year acknowledged the inevitability of overshooting 1.5C, but this is the first time a UN agency has addressed this head-on in a dedicated report that drew criticism from climate activists.
Scientists agree that warming above 1.5C relative to pre-industrial times poses grave risks and nearly 200 nations committed in 2015 to try and keep global temperature rises to this safer threshold.
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