The depressing news on the Climate
For the first time, climate models show the 1.5�C goal is dead Governments have failed to limit global warming. What comes next? Nov 4th 2025 WHEN THE ECONOMIST warned in 2022 that keeping global warming to just 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was no longer plausible, we took some flak. Critics worried that such thinking sapped the momentum for decarbonisation. At the time, some climate modellers still believed the 1.5°C target was daunting yet just about doable—if governments moved quickly. Three years on, the data confirm that the window has closed. The latest Emissions Gap Report of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that the relentless rise in emissions since 2020 rules out even theoretical routes to the 1.5°C goal, which the agency expects to be exceeded by at least 0.1°C within the next decade. Even if countries met every near-term climate pledge (the Paris Agreement’s “nationally determined contributions”, or NDCs) and hit their targets for net-zero emissions of carbon ...
