UN says we're going to blow past 1.5º warming, offers a "now what?" answer
Best case is now an overshoot to 1.8º C, accompanied by massive carbon removal.
The United Nations has declared that humanity is on track to surpass the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Since its inception, most nations have treated the target as aspirational, with the United States vacillating between withdrawal and recommitment. However, global temperatures, driven by rising carbon emissions, appear to be nearing this critical point.
For the first time, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) has recognized this grim reality and proposed a new set of goals. Instead of merely aiming to stay below 1.5 degrees, UNEP now emphasizes the need for prolonged avoidance of the threshold and the removal of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within this century.
Achieving these goals demands immediate, drastic emissions reductions and the implementation of large-scale carbon removal technologies. As the planet edges closer to the 1.5 degree limit, likely due to the ongoing strong El Niño event, the urgency of this situation becomes increasingly clear.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
