The world is likely to breach the 1.5°C global warming limit within the next few years, and even the most favourable outlook sees temperatures rising to about 1.8°C, the UN Environment Programme said in a new report. UNEP warned that prolonged warming beyond the threshold would bring more severe extreme weather, accelerating ecosystem loss, threats to food and water supplies, and potentially irreversible shifts in major climate systems.
UNEP is urging governments to pursue an “overshoot, peak and decline” approach: limit the time spent above 1.5°C, reach a peak as quickly as possible and then drive temperatures back down. Achieving that goal would demand immediate, sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, alongside a rapid move away from fossil fuels and, eventually, carefully governed carbon dioxide removal to complement those cuts.
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The agency stressed that carbon removal must not be treated as a substitute for steep emissions reductions. Each additional fraction of a degree of warming, it warned, raises the danger of irreversible climate tipping points and intensifies devastating consequences for vulnerable communities.
