The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 'C to avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change is officially dead. According to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the best the planet can hope for on its current emissions trajectory is warming of about 1.8 'C above pre-industrial levels this century. 'Obviously, yes, we have climate procrastinated,' Inger Anderson, UNEP's executive director, said during a briefing on 1 September. 'And obviously yes, when we started UNFCCC [the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] we knew what action had to be taken. And we have not taken it at the speed that we could have.' The nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris climate accord in 2015 agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to keep the rise in global average temperatures 'well below' 2 'C relative to the pre-industrial average, with a stretch goal of limiting the rise to 1.5 'C. Beyond that 1.5 'C threshold, the...
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