With the latest information coming out of the United Nations, they have determined it is not a matter of if we will exceed 1.5° any more but when we will. This information will be discussed in September at COP31 in Turkey. Amongst the discussions will be the information that was released by United Nations Environmental Programme. The new trajectory is to keep the climbing temperatures below 2.8°C and hope that we can bring them back down.

According to Nature.com that threshold had already been surpassed once in 2024 when the temperatures hit 1.55°C over the industry standard. At the time it was considered a fluke as it was the only time that it happened. Part of the Paris agreement was to have countries work towards reducing their greenhouse gasses and the amount of CO2 that was being released.

According to the report and PBS the new normal is not staying below the threshold but how do we navigate a future in which the earth is above that temperature and climbing. If countries start working together and stop using fossil fuels and burning coal in such high quantities it may be enough to slow the climb and keep it at or below 1.8°C by mid century.

The climb now becomes an issues with melting ice caps, turning rainforests into a place that releases CO2 instead of storing it, and many more cases of extreme weather facing the earth in the coming years.