EarthBeat Weekly: Catholics urge resolve with world set to miss key climate goal

Catholics urge resolve as the world is set to miss key 1.5 C climate goal   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change September 11, 2026   Smoke rises from a wildfire progressing in Betxi, Spain, July 26, 2026. (OSV News photo/Pedro Nunes, Reuters) For more than a decade, discussions about how to address climate change have revolved around a central figure: 1.5 degrees Celsius.  That is the higher-ambition temperature limit that nearly 200 countries agreed to pursue through the phaseout of greenhouse gas emissions when they adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015. Here's the full text, from Article 2(a) of the climate accord:  "Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change." That inclusion of 1.5 C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) was a hard-fought victory for island nations who rallied support around that target, as I reported from Paris at the time, including eventually from the Holy See. More than a figure, they said it represented a lifeline, as heating above that point significantly raised the risk that their homelands — and with it, their livelihoods, cultures and communities — could be totally lost beneath rising seas.  A 2018 United Nations report reinforced the difference between 1.5 C and 2 C warming, with the latter exposing hundreds of millions more people around the globe to catastrophic climate impacts like severe heatwaves and sea rise, and with it threatening food and water supplies along with coastal infrastructure and communities. Last year, the International Court of Justice issued a major advisory opinion affirming that 1.5 C was "the scientifically based consensus target" under international law, and that all countries — whether party to the Paris Agreement or not — held a legal obligation to limit climate pollution. Failing to do so, the judges said, could amount to a breach of international law.  Fast forward to last week, when the U.N. Environment Programme issued a new report that stated what many had suspected for some time: Countries have failed to cut emissions deeply and quickly enough to avoid 1.5 C warming, with the report saying it is now "inevitable" temperatures will exceed that threshold likely by the end of the 2020s.  The sobering conclusion means the focus must now shift, the scientists behind the report said, from trying to avoid 1.5 C to finding ways to limit and reverse warming "overshoot" from that point (including through untested carbon capture-and-storage technologies) and at the same time prepare for the climate impacts such levels of warming will bring to societies and ecosystems.  The new report makes clear that global warming of 1.5 C "is not considered safe for most nations, communities, ecosystems and sectors, and still poses significant risks to natural and human systems." Even temporarily exceeding that level of warming "will result in substantial and often irreversible impacts." Catholic officials who spoke with me about the U.N. overshoot report for this story at EarthBeat said while its findings are bleak, it cannot become grounds to give up efforts to limit global warming as much and as fast as possible. "The worst possible response would be to conclude that the battle is lost. The opposite is true: Every fraction of a degree, and every year spent above 1.5 degrees C, matters enormously for vulnerable communities and for the ecosystems on which we all depend," said Lorna Gold, executive director of the Laudato Si' Movement.  "We cannot allow 'overshoot' to become another language for surrender. From the Global South, our message must be clear: Every fraction of a degree still matters, because behind every fraction are people, communities, cultures and species," Rodne Galicha, executive director of Living Laudato Si' Philippines, told me.  The report comes as global attention to climate change has waned, though its impacts are increasingly visible with each passing season, including in this summer of extreme disasters highlighted by the flash floods in Nepal triggered by a glacier's collapse. "The tragic flooding in Nepal shows what happens when our common home fractures," Lisa Sullivan with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, told me. "But an overshoot doesn't mean giving up; it means ramping up." Read more: Global warming set to surpass key 1.5 C climate limit by 2030, UN report finds What else is new on EarthBeat:   Nazareth sisters promote holistic healing with nature by Thomas Scaria More than 10,000 people have achieved holistic recovery at the Nazareth Nature Care Centre in Kunnoth, India, over the past nearly four decades.  Read more here »   Monday Starter: Nun leading Caritas Nepal calls for international aid after floods by Chris Herlinger, Stephan Uttom Rozario Plus, Sr. Jean Schmidt of Loyola fame is honored with a statue on campus, and the Adrian Dominicans issue criticism of Trump's trade war with Canada. Read more here »   German archbishop says US-Mexico border wall recalls Berlin Wall, warns against loss of humanity by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Quoting Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, the visiting prelate said, "In the church, there are no borders. That is how Catholicism is brought to life." Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: After 9/11, documents suggest, New Yorkers were misled about air quality —Sally Goldenberg and Nina Agrawal for The New York Times Cancer's toll on 9/11 survivors is accelerating 25 years later —Daniel Wu and Chris Hacker for the Washington Post Global heat is stuck on high. Scientists say August was Earth's hottest month they've measured —Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press Many people aren't connecting the dots between climate change and extreme weather —Kiley Price for Inside Climate News Nepal puts climate justice at centre of global pitch for flood aid —Saurabh Sharma, Sarita Chaganti Singh and Gopal Sharma for Reuters You don't have a right to safe drinking water, US court rules —Sophie Hurwitz for Mother Jones Studies link New Mexico drilling to radiation, air pollution, health risks —Jerry Redfern for Capital & Main Underserved communities again ask courts to restore justice grant funding —Amy Green for Inside Climate News Final Beat: EarthBeat Weekly in its full form will be taking a brief hiatus over the coming weeks, as I will be heading out on parental leave.  Rest assured, you will still receive a slimmed-down version of the newsletter every Friday in your inbox.  I'll see you in November. As always, thanks for reading (and continuing to read) EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Looking to Hire? Offering Retreats? Selling Books? Place an Ad in NCR's Online Classified Section for Only $75 per Month!   Advertisement