Article 3: In a warming world, reframe the climate challenge
Why in news: UNEP’s “Limiting Overshoot” report warns that the 1.5°C climate target is increasingly unattainable, highlighting rising climate risks, carbon removal needs, inadequate climate finance and climate
Key Details
- 1.5°C breached: Temporary breaches have occurred repeatedly.
- Overshoot: Warming should exceed 1.5°C as little and briefly as possible.
- Carbon removal: Forests and technologies are needed to remove atmospheric carbon.
- Loss & Damage: Existing climate finance remains inadequate for disaster recovery.
- Climate justice: Vulnerable nations need greater financial and institutional support.
1.5°C Target and Climate Overshoot
- UNEP’s “Limiting Overshoot” report states that keeping global warming within the 1.5°C Paris Agreement threshold is no longer feasible.
- The 1.5°C level has already been temporarily crossed several times in recent years.
- These breaches signal that the world is nearing dangerous levels of long-term warming.
- Increasing heatwaves, floods and disasters such as the Nepal flash flood reflect the intensifying climate crisis.
- UNEP therefore calls for keeping the overshoot above 1.5°C as small and short as possible.
Every Fraction of a Degree Increases Risk
- Even a small increase in global temperature can raise the risk of irreversible climate tipping points.
- Higher warming makes adaptation harder for communities facing glacier retreat, sea-level rise and extreme weather.
- UNEP’s most optimistic pathway projects warming peaking at around 1.8°C.
- This 1.8°C is not a new target, but an indication of the challenge the world may face.
- Strong and immediate climate action remains necessary to limit the scale and duration of warming.
Need for Carbon Removal
- Existing net-zero commitments alone cannot immediately remove greenhouse gases already accumulated in the atmosphere.
- Bringing temperatures down will require both deep emission cuts and carbon removal.
- Natural carbon sinks, particularly forests, can absorb a greater amount of atmospheric carbon.
- Emerging technologies can also help capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Carbon removal should complement—not substitute for—rapid reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Climate Finance and Loss & Damage
- Climate disasters raise the issue of who should pay for climate-related destruction, particularly in vulnerable developing countries.
- Nepal’s disaster illustrates how countries with low historical responsibility for emissions can face severe climate losses.
- The UNFCCC Loss and Damage Fund, established in 2022, aims to provide financial assistance for such climate-induced losses.
- However, the fund’s resources are far smaller than the reconstruction requirements of severely affected countries.
- Effective climate justice therefore requires adequate, accessible and rapid climate finance.
Climate Justice and Global Institutional Response
- A rapidly warming planet requires international institutions capable of providing swift responses to climate-related disasters.
- Global climate mechanisms must strengthen emergency financing, adaptation support and disaster resilience.
- Developed countries should provide greater financial and technological support to climate-vulnerable developing nations.
- Climate policies must balance mitigation, adaptation and loss-and-damage concerns.
- Ultimately, climate action must be guided by climate justice, ensuring that countries least responsible for global warming are not forced to bear disproportionate costs.
Conclusion
The 1.5°C threshold may no longer be fully achievable, but this cannot justify weaker climate action. Every fraction of warming avoided will reduce irreversible damage and adaptation costs. Countries must accelerate emission reductions, strengthen carbon sinks, expand adaptation measures and ensure adequate Loss and Damage finance. A credible global response must combine scientific urgency with equity, responsibility and climate justice.
Descriptive question:
The increasing likelihood of climate overshoot highlights the need to strengthen mitigation, adaptation and climate finance. Discuss in the context of climate justice. (150 words, 10 marks)
Source: The Indian Express