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Cryosphere faces permanent damage when world overshoots 1.5C, scientists warn

Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating
should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting
global temperature targets, a UN report has found.

Permanent and widespread
losses of snow and ice expose a “persistent myth” that overshooting the
1.5C target of the Paris climate agreement – to 2C or 3C – could be
manageable or even preferable to urgent cuts to emissions, the report
found.

The planet has heated by 1.3C since pre-industrial times and
failures to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect nature have led
scientists to conclude that some level of overshoot is inevitable as they
fight to keep end-of-century warming to 1.5C.

But extreme effects on the
cryosphere – Earth’s water in a solid state, including all its ice and
snow – mean temperatures must rise above that threshold for as short a
period as possible, the scientists urged. Added to this, enough
planet-heating carbon should be removed from the atmosphere to bring
long-term warming down much further, ideally below 1C by 2150.

Guardian 2nd Nov 2026

November 4, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change