Global temperatures are set to rise by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and will lead to possibly permanent effects even if the damage is reversed, according to a new UN climate study.
The UN environment programme’s report, published on Wednesday (2 September), highlights the damages of a temperature overshoot even in the best-case scenario of a 1.5°C peak and later decline.
And it finds that even with immediate global mobilisation on sustainable climate action, “some losses will be irreversible,” according to South African climate scientist professor Debra Roberts, co-author of the report.
Government action would still mean stronger pressure “on those who have been at the source of the problem to put in place ambitious adaptation and mitigation,” Roberts told EUobserver.
“We live in an unequal and unjust world, that will be exacerbated by [temperature] overshoot,” she added.
