‘No credible’ path in place to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C

There is “no credible” pathway in place to rein in global temperature rise to 1.5C degrees, the United Nations warned today, adding that only “root and branch” transformation can save the planet from disaster. “Under current policies, the world is headed for 2.8 degrees of global heating by the end of the century,” said UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, outlining the findings of the annual Emissions Gap report. NDCs submitted in the past year take less than 1 per cent off projected global emissions in 2030. open image in gallery Firefighters operate at the site of a wildfire in Pumarejo de Tera near Zamora, northern Spain, in June 2022 The slow progress means that the world is currently far overshooting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw nearly every country pledge to cut their carbon footprint in order to avoid the catastrophic impacts associated with climate change including more dangerous heatwaves, droughts, stronger storms and ice sheet collapse. The Paris deal aimed to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5C, or at least “well below 2C”, to avert planetary breakdown.