UN outlines pathways to restore global temperatures to 1.5°C after climate target breach

Global temperatures are likely to cross the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold within the next few years, intensifying extreme weather, ecosystem loss and the risks facing small island developing states and low-lying coastal cities, according to a new UN report released on Wednesday.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, titled Limiting Overshoot, stressed the need for immediate and sustained cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to limit the duration and magnitude of warming beyond the 1.5°C threshold. “It is still possible to bring temperatures down and achieve global goals in the Paris Agreement,” the report said.

However, it also warned that above 1.5°C, climate risks and impacts would intensify with every additional fraction of a degree and each passing year. The expected consequences include more intense extreme weather, ecosystem loss and the submersion of small island developing states and low-lying coastal cities.

Guterres calls for ‘overshoot of ambition’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recent extreme weather events were a warning of what could lie ahead. “This summer's scorching heat, raging wildfires and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead. We must make the overshoot above 1.5 degrees as small and short as possible. That demands an overshoot of ambition,” Guterres said.

The report called for immediate and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, to minimise peak warming on the path to net-zero emissions. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said governments must intensify climate action by cutting emissions, strengthening resilience and adaptation, and ensuring that any exceedance of 1.5°C is as small and short as possible. “Now is the time we must double down on climate action. We can — and must — get on the right path,” Andersen said.