The United Nations says the world can no longer keep warming below 1.5°C without first going past it. Its Emissions Gap Report 2026, released October 21, lays out a plan to limit the overshoot to about 1.7-1.8°C & return to 1.5°C by 2100. That requires cutting emissions 18% by 2030 & 69% by 2040, far more than countries have promised, plus removing 320 billion tonnes of carbon from the air. The report raises hard questions about law, who pays, how carbon removal is governed, the American exit from the climate treaty, & what each tenth of a degree means for ordinary lives.