1.5°C overshoot to cause irreversible harm: IPCC

NEW DELHI: The world is on course to overshoot the 1.5°C global warming threshold, which will lead to irreversible harm and risks for human and natural climate systems, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a key report released on Monday, with the authors portending the "worst impacts on India and South Asia" of the climate crisis.

- Javashree Nandi

The assessment released as the IPCC's Synthesis Report for sixth assessment, stressed that humanity still has a chance to prevent the worst of future harms, the United Nations panel of scientists said, underscoring a now-or-never chance of softening the blow from climate crisis.

"Humanity is on thin iceand that ice is melting fast," United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said. "Our world needs climate action on all fronts everything, everywhere, all at once."

The report added the urgent steps require quickly slashing carbon pollution and fossil fuel use by nearly two-thirds by 2035 while the UN chief called for an immediate halt to new fossil fuel exploration and for rich countries to quit coal, oil and gas by 2040. The IPCC report indicated that to prevent the overshoot of 1.5°C was a matter of survival since every incremental increase beyond that will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards, that will result in irreversible adverse impacts on polar, mountain, and coastal ecosystems, where as ice sheets and glaciers will melt and the sea-level will rise.

"While we in India probably have very little to do with accelerating global warming, there is no doubt that we are a very large economy and we do have a very significant contribution ongoing to global mitigation. As a very large country in geography unfortunately we will be impacted quite heavily," said Dipak Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow, The Energy Resource Institute and IPCC co-author.