UN Report Says World Will Cross 1.5°C Threshold Within Years
· World · The Independent, Hindustan Times
The UN Environment Programme issued a first-of-its-kind report on Wednesday acknowledging that Earth will breach the 1.5°C warming limit set by the 2015 Paris climate accord "in the next few years." Global temperatures have already reached 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels, measured on a 20-year average. Under governments' current policies, temperatures could reach 2.6°C by 2100, though the most optimistic scenario with ambitious climate action would cap warming at 1.8°C around mid-century before reversing. The report recommends a new strategy: overshoot the limit briefly, then bring temperatures back down by ending fossil fuel use and deploying large-scale carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said "Humanity is speeding past the limit to avoid climate catastrophe," while report co-author Richard Betts of the University of Exeter called it "a reality check."
Why it matters
The shift from prevention to overshoot-and-reverse strategy means decades of worse heatwaves, floods, sea-level rise, and extinctions are now unavoidable, reshaping how governments and industries must plan climate adaptation and energy transition investments.
Read the original report — The Independent
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