Climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C is called a waste by The Boston Globe

A Boston Globe opinion piece argues that the UN's annual COP meetings and the 1.5°C target have not meaningfully changed global emissions trends and that the recent Belém conference may have cost Brazil up to $1 billion.

An opinion column in The Boston Globe questions the value of the UN's long-running COP climate conferences and the 1.5°C warming target. The author notes the recent COP in Belém, Brazil, may have cost the Brazilian government as much as $1 billion and drew roughly 60,000 delegates. The piece traces the 1.5°C goal to a 2009 proposal by small island states and describes how it became an aspirational limit in the Paris Agreement of 2015. The author argues that observed emissions and resilience trends reflect broader economic and technological changes rather than outcomes produced by the COP process. Key points reported: - The article reports uncertainty about the total cost of the Belém conference and that Brazil may have spent up to $1 billion on the event. - It notes the 1.5°C target was advanced by small island nations and later adopted as an aspirational limit at Paris in 2015. - The author cites data indicating mortality from climate-related disasters has fallen and that 2025 may feature historically low disaster-related deaths. - The piece contends that global emissions trajectories have continued due to long-running economic and technological factors, and that many countries are not on track to meet their nationally determined contributions. Summary: The article argues that annual COP meetings and the 1.5°C target have not produced the claimed, measurable shifts in global emissions and that some resources dedicated to the process may have been redirected from other development priorities. It reports that fewer than half of participating countries had submitted updated NDCs before the conference and that the next COP is scheduled to meet in Antalya, Turkey.