Living question · provisional
How can warming above 1.5°C be kept lower and shorter without promising to erase the damage?
Present choices shape people’s exposure and the share of damage that cannot be undone.
What we currently think
Limiting the peak and its duration still matters; a temperature return would not restore everything lost along the way.
Latest movement · New thread
The thermometer has no Undo button
UNEP changes the question: how far above the threshold, and for how long?
Working hypotheses
No public hypothesis yet.
The red thread
- New thread
Week ending 2026-09-06
Issue 06The thermometer has no Undo button
UNEP changes the question: how far above the threshold, and for how long?
Judgment : Limiting the peak and its duration still matters; a temperature return would not restore everything lost along the way.
Read the story →Sources
- UNEP: World set to cross 1.5°C global warming, but can still limit, adapt to and return from higher temperatures
Launch release: limit peak warming and overshoot duration, cut emissions and adapt societies.
- Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return
The overview identifies the multi-decadal warming level and optimistic current-pledges scenario.
- UNEP: World set to cross 1.5°C global warming, but can still limit, adapt to and return from higher temperatures