Two UN reports warn that overshooting 1.5°C will bring irreversible ice loss, from glacier melt to rising seas, with recovery taking decades to centuries.

PARIS: Exceeding 1.5°C of global warming will have “irreversible” consequences for glaciers, sea ice and the Earth’s frozen regions, two UN reports warned on Monday, calling for urgent action.

The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement commits the world to limiting warming to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to hold it at 1.5°C to try to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

One of the reports said overshooting the 1.5°C target “will bring large-scale and in many cases irreversible impacts” for the cryosphere — Earth’s ice in all its forms.