Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says in report that maps path back below danger zone
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. So now the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials say.
The United Nations has acknowledged that the Earth will exceed the 1.5-degree temperature limit set by the 2015 Paris climate accord. According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, the planet will soon surpass this threshold, and as a result, the world will face decades of increased disasters, rising seas, and extinctions.
In response to this development, scientists and U.N. officials recommend a strategy called "overshoot," which involves limiting excessive warming and then bringing temperatures back down. This can be achieved by slashing fossil fuel use and finding ways to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
The U.N.'s concession that the Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst impacts of global warming marks a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change. Officials now emphasize the need to mitigate the effects of global warming and find ways to reduce temperatures.
Brief written by urgent.news from PBS NewsHour Science, Mongabay — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
