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Stiell: World must act urgently as 1.5°C overshoot becomes inevitable – EnviroNews
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UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has warned that the world must urgently intensify climate action as exceeding the 1.5°C global warming threshold becomes inevitable, calling for a stronger focus on resilience, climate finance and accelerated clean energy transition.
Stiell spoke on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, at the official opening of Pre-COP in Fiji, where he said the world must work to ensure that the expected breach of the 1.5°C threshold is “as short and as small as possible.”
He said limiting global warming to 1.5°C remained a goal demanded by science, agreed by nations and essential to the survival of vulnerable small island states, particularly those in the Pacific and Caribbean.
“But science is telling us that overshoot of 1.5 is now inevitable,” Stiell said, stressing that the development required an urgent global response.
According to him, governments must deliver on existing international commitments and goals, while fully implementing—and where possible exceeding—their national climate plans.
He said progress must be significantly accelerated ahead of the second Global Stocktake at COP33, with countries moving closer to meeting the targets established by the first stocktake and laying the foundation for greater ambition.
Stiell identified escalating climate impacts and inadequate preparedness as one of the immediate challenges confronting the global community.
“Climate impacts are escalating. This will get worse as we head into overshoot. Yet preparedness lags behind,” he said.
He urged the COP process to recognise this reality and prioritise urgent measures to strengthen climate resilience, particularly in vulnerable countries and communities.
Calls for COPs to deliver implementation
The UN climate chief also called for reforms that would make the annual UN climate conferences more focused on delivering concrete climate action.
“At UN Climate Change we are looking at the process – at developing the practical architecture that drives implementation,” he said.
He stressed the need for governments to work more closely with cities, states, the private sector and other stakeholders to accelerate climate action.
Stiell said the Pre-COP discussions in Fiji must therefore help ensure that COP31 delivers tangible progress, including on the 1.5°C goal and the needs of climate-vulnerable nations.
He pointed to the Global Climate Action Agenda and the formal negotiations as important mechanisms for accelerating implementation, particularly by supporting countries to deliver their National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Climate finance remains critical
Stiell further underscored the importance of climate finance, saying commitments must be delivered while countries facing climate vulnerability must have improved access to financing of sufficient quality.
He highlighted the Statement and Action Plan on Access to Climate Finance for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), saying the initiative could play an important role if governments and other stakeholders backed it.
He specifically called on members of development bank boards and other influential stakeholders to use their positions to ensure that climate finance reaches communities and countries on the ground rapidly.
“Finance is vital. Commitments must be delivered. Access and quality must be addressed,” he said.
Stiell backs accelerated electrification
The UN official also urged governments, businesses and investors to respond to the COP31 Presidency’s call for stronger action under the Action Agenda, including a push for electricity to account for 35 per cent of global energy use by 2035.
He described electrification as a “golden opportunity,” particularly for small island states seeking to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
According to Stiell, accelerating electrification could help vulnerable countries lower energy costs, strengthen resilience and power sustainable development.
He said the response to the anticipated 1.5°C overshoot must also address the economic and energy challenges confronting the world today, including volatility in fossil fuel markets and increasingly severe climate-related disasters.
Stiell argued that the transition to clean energy was no longer simply a climate imperative but an economic necessity.
“Because responding to 1.5 overshoot is also about responding to the world today,” he said, pointing to “fossil fuel markets chaos, escalating disasters, and the undeniable economic logic driving the clean energy transition and climate action across all sectors.”
He concluded that every country has an immediate interest in accelerating climate action.
“It is in every nation’s immediate interest to act,” Stiell said.
