UNEP says world needs to prepare for exceeding the 1.5°C warming threshold
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a special report that the world needs to prepare for exceeding the 1.5°C global warming threshold and limit the duration and scale of such an overshoot as much as possible. Channel NewsAsia reports.
In 2015, nearly 200 countries committed to making efforts to limit temperature growth to the safer threshold of 1.5°C compared with the pre-industrial period. However, according to the assessment cited in the article, the world will exceed this level in the coming years.
A shift in the approach to climate policy
UNEP noted that the task has shifted from avoiding an overshoot to managing its consequences. Report co-author Richard Betts of the University of Exeter called the document a sober assessment: the world will have to live with higher temperatures, but opportunities to limit warming still remain.
Another co-author, Debra Roberts of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said policymakers should restructure climate governance to account for a scenario in which 1.5°C is exceeded, as existing plans are not prepared for this.
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According to the article, the planet has already warmed by about 1.4°C since 1850–1900, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels. The past three years have been the hottest in the entire observation period.
Emissions reductions and carbon removal
Scientists warn that exceeding 1.5°C raises the risks of extreme weather events and brings critical changes closer, including the collapse of ice sheets and the loss of coral reefs. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen stressed that there are no good scenarios for remaining above this threshold, but the 1.5°C goal remains relevant.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it is possible to bring warming back below 1.5°C by the end of the century. The UNEP report states that, alongside deep and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, this will require removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and subsequently storing it. Climate activists criticized the wording of the report, warning that it must not become a reason to delay the phaseout of coal, oil and gas.
