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Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says in report that maps path back below danger zone
PBS • • world
Key Points:
- The United Nations has acknowledged that the world will soon exceed the 1.5°C warming limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, marking a shift from preventing to managing climate change impacts.
- The new UN report recommends focusing on limiting the peak temperature overshoot and then reducing global temperatures back below 1.5°C by the end of the century through ending fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide removal technologies.
- The overshoot period will likely last for decades, leading to increased weather disasters, food and water shortages, species extinctions, and economic harm, disproportionately affecting the poor and vulnerable.
- The report warns of irreversible tipping points, such as ice sheet loss and rainforest collapse, and emphasizes the urgent need for adaptation measures alongside mitigation efforts.
- While tree planting can help slightly reduce temperatures, novel and potentially costly carbon removal technologies will be necessary to cool the planet after overshoot, though their feasibility remains uncertain.
