UN says world must navigate ‘reality’ of 1.5C overshoot

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report affirming that the world will inevitably exceed the 1.5C threshold of global warming, shifting the focus from avoiding this overshoot to managing its consequences. This report marks the first time a UN agency has addressed this issue directly. The world has already warmed by approximately 1.4C since the late 19th century, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. The last three years have been the hottest on record.

Inger Andersen, UNEP's executive director, emphasized that there are no positive outcomes if the planet remains above the 1.5C mark. Leaders like UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Debra Roberts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal have stressed the need for a reconfiguration of climate governance to deal with an overshoot pathway.

While the report does not advocate for abandoning the 1.5C goal, it calls for a shift in strategy towards carbon dioxide removal and deep, rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. This includes the use of carbon removal technologies, which are currently minimal and have been criticized by climate activists.