The world is poised to breach the critical 1.5-degree Celsius global temperature threshold, with decades of insufficient action making overshoot imminent and unavoidable, according to a stark new annual Emissions Gap Report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Current trajectory models indicate that if present policies continue, global temperatures will rise by an average of 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within this century. Even if nations successfully fulfill their updated climate pledges, warming is still projected to reach 2.6 degrees Celsius, triggering catastrophic and irreversible weather extremes across the globe.

The outlook has been substantially worsened by the US regime under Donald Trump, which has reportedly dismantled environmental regulations, expanded oil and gas production, and withdrawn the United States from the historic Paris climate accord. Preliminary estimates suggest that America's emissions surge far outpaced all other major nations, driven heavily by a resurgence in coal consumption and spiraling electricity demands.

While UN officials stress that an interim overshoot is not an absolute surrender, bringing temperatures back down below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 will require unprecedented emissions cuts of nearly 69% by 2040, alongside massive deployment of unproven carbon dioxide removal technologies. Experts emphasize that continued delays will only compound escalating economic and ecological risks.

Source: www.dw.com