World can no longer avoid exceeding 1.5C threshold - UN
The world has lost the opportunity to prevent global warming significantly exceeding the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to a major new United Nations report.
A recent UN report reveals that the world has likely exceeded the critical 1.5C temperature limit, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The report, titled "The Point of Return," warns that current climate commitments would only cut emissions by 11%-15% by 2035, far short of the 18%-69% reductions required to limit warming to the 1.5C threshold.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that overshooting the 1.5C limit is not an abandonment of Paris Agreement goals but an urgent call for accelerated emissions reductions. UNEP estimates that global warming could reach 2.8C without further action, and even full implementation of existing climate pledges would still result in 2.6C of warming.
The report stresses that every additional five years of current emissions levels would increase peak warming by 0.1C and that carbon removal on a massive scale may be necessary to bring temperatures back to 1.5C. Renewable energy capacity is expanding rapidly, but global greenhouse gas emissions have not definitively peaked, and progress in reducing fossil fuel consumption and deforestation remains insufficient.
COP31 in Antalya next month will see world leaders face the challenge of meeting the Paris Agreement's temperature ambitions and implementing policies that deliver rapid emissions reductions.
Written by urgent.news from RTE News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
