3 min readSep 5, 2026 06:45 AM IST First published on: Sep 5, 2026 at 06:45 AM ISTThe conclusions of the UN Environment Programme’s latest study, Limiting Overshoot, confirm the worst fears of climate scientists. The report, released on Wednesday, notes that there is no way to contain global temperature rise within the Paris Climate Pact’s threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The danger line has been breached more than once in the past five years. These lapses over a few months or a year were warnings that the planet was perilously close to the long-term temperature rise that the Paris Pact sought to avoid. The distress of heat wave-affected people in Europe, America and Australia, the sufferings of flood-hit communities in different parts of Asia, and now the toll taken by the Nepal flash flood, are signs that climate change is now in uncharted territory. The UNEP report, therefore, has a plea to “make the overshoot above 1.5 degrees as small and short as possible”.Every fraction of a degree increases the risk of irreversible tipping points and makes it difficult to increase the resilience of communities living near retreating glaciers and rising seas. The UNEP report’s best-case scenario sees warming peaking at about 1.8 degrees. This figure should not be mistaken for a new target but as a warning of what even the most resolute action may now have to confront. Currently, not even the most ambitious net-zero targets are enough to immediately neutralise the carbon accumulated in the atmosphere. Removing the GHG would require a combination of traditional approaches — increasing sinks such as forests — and new technologies to suck out carbon.AdvertisementThe question also is: Who pays for climate-inflicted damage? The tragedy in Nepal, for instance, has imposed an enormous burden on a country that has hardly any culpability for climate change. The UNFCCC’s Loss and Damage Fund was created in 2022 for such crises. However, even the most conservative estimate of the Himalayan nation’s rebuilding cost is several times the fund’s corpus. Its board is yet to respond to the plea from several countries for an emergency meeting. The UNEP report is a reminder that a rapidly warming world will require institutions to respond promptly to calamities. It will also require this response to be anchored in the principle of climate justice.