Global temperature rises to exceed 1.5 Celsius 'within a few years', UNEP says
UNEP says the 1.5C limit will be breached within years under current policies, and returning below it would require rapid cuts and large-scale carbon removal.
- On Wednesday, The United Nations Environment Programme issued a report titled Limiting Overshoot, warning that the world will breach the 1.5-degree climate threshold within the next few years and urging governments to accelerate emission cuts and carbon removal.
- Earth is currently 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while current policies project temperatures reaching 2.6 degrees by 2100; the United Nations report advises policymakers to prepare for and navigate a future that corrects course.
- Climate scientist Andrew Weaver from the University of Victoria noted the 1.5 limit is not "some magical climate cliff," explaining that global temperatures will follow a hump-shaped path of more warming before cooling by century's end.
- Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change director Vishal Prasad said, "We know what 1.5 , and what anything beyond it, means for our future, our families, our culture and our environment," warning of threats to island communities.
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded an "overshoot of ambition," urging nations to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels; every five years of delay adds a tenth of a degree to peak warming, according to Imperial College London climate scientist Joeri Rogelj.
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311 Articles
The world is whiffing on its biggest climate goal
This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. For more than a decade, 1.5 degrees Celsius has been the watchword — er, watch temperature? — of climate policy. If the world could hold warming at that level, it could stave off some […]
Global warming will exceed the 1.5 °C limit on the pre-industrial era in the coming years, which will raise climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous levels, but it is still possible to reduce temperatures and achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, warned the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in a report this Wednesday.The Paris Agreement seeks to limit the rise of the Earth's temperature to less than 2 °C and -ideally - 1.5 °C. …
<p>The Earth will soon exceed the safe temperature limit — the UN recognizes the loss of a chance to avoid part of the effects of warming. The world can still lower its temperature after exceeding the limit.</p>
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