UN says world must navigate 'reality' of 1.5C overshoot

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that a temporary overshoot of the 1.5°C global warming threshold is now practically inevitable due to current emission trajectories.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General said "Every fraction of a degree will cost lives, destroy livelihoods, deepen inequality and push ecosystems closer to irreversible damage. But we can still bring warming back below 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. We must make the overshoot as small and short as possible, limiting how high temperatures rise and how long they remain above 1.5. "

Scientists also stressed that the peak magnitude and duration above 1.5°C must be strictly minimized and brought back down through net-zero commitments. But the world is expected to blow past 1.5C in a matter of years and attention has pivoted to making any "overshoot" as brief and contained as possible.