UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday it was now clear that efforts to cap global warming at 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels would fail in the short term.
Ahead of next month's COP30 climate summit in Brazil, Guterres said going beyond 1.5C would result in "devastating" yet predictable impacts.
"One thing is already clear: we will not be able to contain the global warming below 1.5 degrees in the next few years," Guterres said at the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) weather and climate agency in Geneva.
"Overshooting is now inevitable. Which means that we're going to have a period, bigger or smaller, with higher or lower intensity, above 1.5 degrees in the years to come."
However, if leaders start taking the problem seriously by driving towards net ze