India Withdraws Bid to Host COP33 (2028)

1 April 2026National

India officially withdrew its bid to host the COP33 UN climate summit scheduled for 2028, signalling a recalibration of its climate-diplomacy priorities.

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UNEP 'Limiting Overshoot' Report Says Breaching 1.5°C Warming Is Now Unavoidable

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released 'Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return', concluding that the world will most likely temporarily breach the 1.5°C warming threshold above pre-industrial levels within the next few years. Even under an optimistic scenario, global surface temperature is projected to peak at about 1.8°C; under current policies it reaches 2.6°C by 2100. The report warns that several impacts of a temporary overshoot will be irreversible even if temperatures later decline, and that every additional five years of sustained high emissions adds roughly 0.1°C to peak warming. It follows UNEP's annual Emissions Gap tradition of tracking the 1.5°C goal.

GK ByteUNEP was established in 1972 following the Stockholm Conference and is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya — the only UN body headquartered in Africa | The 1.5°C and 'well below 2°C' targets come from the 2015 Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 | UNEP also publishes the Emissions Gap Report and the Adaptation Gap Report

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GK ByteThe Ministry of Earth Sciences was established in 2006; its MoS (IC) is Dr. Jitendra Singh | International Coastal Cleanup Day is observed on 17 September; World Oceans Day on 8 June | The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, is an autonomous MoES institute

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