We need a global assessment of avoidable climate-change risks

• COMMENT

• 25 February 2026

We need a global assessment of avoidable climate-change risks

To understand the urgency of emissions reductions, policymakers and citizens need a full analysis of what is at stake.

Peter A. Stott0,

Y. T. Eunice Lo1,

John H. Marsham2,

David Obura3,

Tom H. Oliver4,

Matthew D. Palmer5,

Nicola Ranger6,

Simon Sharpe7 &

• …

Rowan Sutton8

Peter A. Stott

Peter A. Stott is a science fellow at the Met Office Hadley Centre and a professor of detection and attribution at the University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.

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Y. T. Eunice Lo

Y. T. Eunice Lo is a senior research fellow in climate change and health at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

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John H. Marsham

John H. Marsham is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

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David Obura

David Obura is director of CORDIO East Africa, Mombasa, Kenya.

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Tom H. Oliver

Tom H. Oliver is a professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, Reading, UK.

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Matthew D. Palmer

Matthew D. Palmer is a science fellow at the Met Office Hadley Centre and an associate professor of climate science at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

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Nicola Ranger

Nicola Ranger is executive director of Earth Capital Nexus and a professor in practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Simon Sharpe

Simon Sharpe is managing director of S-Curve Economics CIC, London, and an honorary professor at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

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Rowan Sutton

Rowan Sutton is director of the Met Office Hadley Centre and a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, Reading, UK.

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[A few people walk in a flooded street.]

Heavy rains flooded streets in São Paulo, Brazil, in February 2025.Credit: Fabio Vieira/FotoRua/NurPhoto/Getty

Climate change presents many threats to life on our planet: a worsening global food crisis, extreme heat that could lead to millions of deaths, intense droughts, floods and the collapse of crucial ecosystems. Some island countries and cities might disappear beneath rising seas. Conflict, state failure and mass migration could escalate.

As we breach 1.5 °C, we must replace temperature limits with clean-energy targets

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