Key Highlights of ‘Limiting Overshoot’ Report

Key Highlights of ‘Limiting Overshoot’ Report

• Released by: The ‘Limiting Overshoot’ Report is released by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It has for the first time set out a detailed “overshoot, peak, and decline” pathway for global warming.
• Key Highlights of ‘Limiting Overshoot’ Report:
  • The 1.5°C Limit Will Be Crossed: The report finds that the world is likely to cross the 1.5°C warming threshold within the next few years. It is no longer considered realistic to prevent this from happening.
  • Limiting Peak Warming Is Now the Priority: Since crossing 1.5°C is becoming unavoidable, the priority should be to limit how high temperatures rise and reduce the amount of time the world remains above 1.5°C.
    • Every delay in reducing emissions increases the peak temperature.
  • Warming Could Reach 1.8°C or Higher: Under the most ambitious climate action scenario, global warming could peak at around 1.8°C in the middle of the century.
    • Under current government policies, warming could reach around 2.6°C by 2100.
  • The World Needs an “Overshoot” Pathway: The report proposes a pathway in which temperatures first cross 1.5°C, reach a peak, and then gradually decline.
    • The aim is eventually to return global warming to below 1.5°C.
  • Rapid Reduction in Fossil Fuel Use Is Essential: Returning temperatures below 1.5°C would require ending the use of fossil fuels and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
    • The report also highlights the need to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
  • Carbon Removal Has an Important but Limited Role: The report identifies carbon dioxide removal (CDR) as an important part of the long-term cooling pathway.
    • However, carbon removal cannot substitute for rapid emissions reductions and faces challenges related to cost and reliability.
  • Climate Impacts Will Continue During the Overshoot Period: The period of warming above 1.5°C could last for many decades.
    • During this time, climate-related disasters are expected to increase, including extreme weather, food and water shortages, health impacts, economic losses and species extinction.
  • Adaptation and Resilience Are Necessary: Governments must strengthen climate adaptation and resilience, because some impacts of higher temperatures cannot be avoided.
    • Poor and vulnerable communities are expected to be affected the most.
  • Risk of Irreversible Climate Tipping Points: Higher warming increases the risk of irreversible tipping points, including the loss of parts of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, damage to the Amazon rainforest and disruption of Atlantic Ocean circulation.
    • Some areas could eventually become difficult to insure or even uninhabitable.
  • Immediate Action Can Still Reduce Damage: Although crossing 1.5°C is increasingly unavoidable, the report stresses that climate action is still valuable.
    • Acting now can reduce peak warming and make the future safer than allowing temperatures to remain above 1.5°C for the long term.