03/09/2026
A new UN report says we're very likely to overshoot 1.5°C. Very soon.
It also warns against the temptations of fatalism.
Now is not the time for paralysis. It is time to accelerate.
Our collective job now is to make the other side of 1.5°C as manageable, and as short-lived, as possible. If we look at the astronomical costs that lie ahead: food insecurity, infrastructure damage, supply chain collapse, mass climate migration, and increased risk of conflict, the supposed "cost" of making sustainable decisions today starts to look like a trifle.
This is a business risk. Boards and leadership teams need to give their finance, procurement and operations teams a clear mandate: factor long-term resilience into decision-making, not just short-term cost.
The report urges the need for adaptation plans; how are we to survive these conditions? But adaptation means more than building sea walls and cooling centres. There is no Ark.
We must redesign the systems that produce and distribute all our goods, building more local circular economies that are less resource-intensive and more resilient to disruption. We must rethink our supply chains before more crises force us to.
Every tonne of CO₂ we avoid still matters.
Every tonne of virgin material we replace still matters.
Every fraction of a degree still matters.
Overshooting 1.5°C does not mean the future is written.
The choices we make now will determine how severe the impacts become. Not for some distant future generation. For us. Now.
Step up.
(The photograph below shows Venice council chambers flooded minutes after they rejected amendments to fight climate change, posted by Italian politician and activist Andrea Zanoni in 2019)