World on Track to Cross 1.5°C Warming Threshold Within Years, UN Report Finds

Global warming will soon cross the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold set by the Paris Agreement, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Experts say it remains possible to bring temperatures back down after that.

In 2015, 196 nations and territories signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to keep the average rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, with an aim of limiting it to 1.5 degrees C. The new UNEP report, titled "Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return," finds that if the world continues on its current path, it will cross the 1.5 degree line within just a few years.

"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," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

The report calls for two main lines of action: an immediate and sustained cut in greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and carbon dioxide, and adaptation measures to protect communities already affected by climate change. It also says the world must work toward net-negative emissions, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than is added, though carbon capture technology remains at an early stage of development.

Even if every nation began cutting emissions immediately, the report notes, the world is already experiencing some of climate change's fatal and irreversible effects, from more intense wildfire seasons to worsening natural disasters, particularly in coastal and other high-risk areas.