Nations grapple with loss of 1.5 deg C target at UN climate summit

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The UN declared in September that crossing 1.5 deg C was imminent and unavoidable. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Climate campaigners marching in Antalya, Turkey, on Nov 14, to mark the opening of the Peoples’ Climate Summit and the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice.

Antalya – For a decade, the 1.5 deg C goal has served as the north star of climate action, a line nations pledged to hold to avoid the worst ravages of a warming planet.

But at the 2026 global climate conference – the first since the United Nations said the 1.5 deg C threshold would be missed – nations appear unsure how to take the news.

The world has already warmed about 1.4 deg C above pre-industrial times and the UN declared in September that crossing 1.5 deg C – the most ambitious target threshold of the Paris accord – was imminent and unavoidable.

Yet in Turkey, where the COP31 negotiations are at the midway point, some nations are clinging to the goal, particularly those on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, whose Pacific island nation is threatened by rising seas, said 1.5 deg C was not “an abstract target”.

“It is an existential threat to our food, our economies and sovereignty,” he said in Antalya.

Some countries want a final deal at COP31 to affirm that 1.5 deg C remains the “right goal”, according to a summary of negotiating positions released by Australia, which is chairing the talks.

There is also a push for language about returning to 1.5C “as soon as possible” and that global temperatures are “still able” to be lowered once exceeding the threshold.

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