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STORY: UNEP / LIMITING OVERSHOOT REPORT
TRT: 03:55
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNEP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATELINE: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026, NAIROBI, KENYA / FILE
DESCRIPTION:
2 SEPTEMBER 2026, NAIROBI, KENYA
1. Various shots, United Nations offices in Nairobi, Kenya
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Well, let's face it. The planet is sending us some signals, and they're coming rapidly with great intensity and frequency: flooding, fires, landslides, calamity all around, impacting people and planet and our economies. So we have to take action. We have to do more, not less.”
FILE – VIET NAM
3. Various shots, a wind farm
2 SEPTEMBER 2026, NAIROBI, KENYA
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Well, the thing is, we have to recognize that we are set to bypass 1.5 degrees in the next few years. And So we have to have a conversation about what that overshoot peak and decline pathway could look like. And that's really the efforts of this report highlighting a pathway that we must now understand better and work more towards achieving, because 1.5 absolutely remains the goal.”
FILE – MUMBAI, INDIA
5. Various shots, rooftop solar panels
FILE – MOROCCO
6. Various shots, the Noor Power Station
FILE – NAKURU, KENYA
7. Various shots, energy efficient lighting being installed in a school.
FILE – MADRID, SPAIN
8. Various shots, urban tree planting and park construction
FILE – SURAT, INDIA
9. Various shots of construction of a seawall
FILE – SRI LANKA
10. Various shots, mangrove restoration
11. Various shots, coral research and breeding.
The report, Limiting Overshoot, identifies an ‘overshoot, peak, and decline’ pathway as the best remaining option to minimize the magnitude and duration of this overshoot and try to return to below 1.5°C as soon as possible.
“This summer’s scorching heat, raging wildfires and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead. We must make the overshoot above 1.5 degrees as small and short as possible. That demands an overshoot of ambition” said UN Secretary-General Antőnio Guterres.
This pathway would minimize peak temperature rise through immediate and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, on the road to net-zero, and bring down temperatures through long-term net-negative emissions, with carefully governed Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) – the process of removing carbon from the air and storing it through afforestation or other means – an essential part of the mix.
At the same time, following this pathway would involve adaptation actions that reduce vulnerability to the current, expected and unexpected impacts of climate change on societies, communities and economies – although there will likely be limits to adaptation and irreversible impacts, especially if peak temperatures are not minimized. The report stresses such a pathway would reduce risks and impacts, make adaptation less difficult and expensive, and increase the chances of lowering temperatures.
“There are no good outcomes if we remain above 1.5°C. Across the globe, extreme heatwaves are already proving that climate impacts will strike faster, hit harder, and last longer - costing more lives and causing deeper disruption,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “Now is the time we must double down on climate action. We can – and must – get on the right path. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening resilience and adaptation, and ensuring exceedance of 1.5°C is as small and short as possible.”
