In 2026, the world has been grappling with severe climate disasters exacerbated by emerging super El Nino, from heat waves to wildfires, droughts, glacier melting and floods. Japan is no exception. Severe flooding and landslides, an exceptional summer heatwave, and an unusually active typhoon season have generated evacuation, casualties, and severe damage to infrastructures.  

According to the UNEP report published in September 2026, exceeding 1.5°C is now widely assessed as unavoidable under current policies and near-term trajectories, and the world should make every effort to make the overshoot as small and as short as possible and then return temperatures to below 1.5°C.  

For their part, Japan’s media outlets have been rallying behind the “Promise of 1.5℃ – Act Now to Stop Global Warming” campaign since 2022 supported by the UN Information Centre in Tokyo (UNIC Tokyo), calling for behavioral changes by individuals and organizations to stave off the climate catastrophe. 

Born out of a commitment by member organizations of the SDG Media Compact – a global network of media companies that signed on to an agreement with the United Nations to promote the SDGs. The “Promise of 1.5℃” campaign pushing for climate action and behavioral change is the world’s first country-level campaign of its kind for the SDG Media Compact. 

Marking the campaign’s five-year milestone in 2026, the Promise of 1.5℃ campaign has been promoting a special project to demonstrate that we are in the fight against climate change together. Running from 25 June 2026 through end 2027, the project “I am one of the 89% who want to stop global warming” is amplifying messages from public figures and people across Japanese society through social media, websites, and events. The initiative builds on global survey findings showing that 89% of people want their governments to take more ambitious climate measures, but many mistakenly believe they are in the minority, which discourages being vocal and demanding more aggressive climate actions. The project aims to visualize the vast majority in the society do care about climate, turning the silent majority into a solid voice in the society.  

More than 30 contributors have already joined the campaign, including UN Messenger of Peace MIDORI, WFP Goodwill Ambassador Anne Watanabe, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Naomi Kawase, KEIDANREN Chairman Yoshinobu Tsutsui, global boy group JO1, various J. LEAGUE Climate Action Ambassadors as well as chefs and children. 

As another significant achievement marking the five-year milestone of the campaign, an updated version of the 2050 Weather Forecast produced by Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, for the global campaign run by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) campaign in 2014 was released in August 2026.  

Featuring the same weather forecaster and climate scientist, the “2050 Weather Forecast Version 2” reflects both accelerating global warming and the latest scientific analysis. Several scenarios for 2050 presented in the 2014 forecast have already become reality years earlier than anticipated. Among them are prolonged periods of temperatures exceeding 35°C, once presented as a potential future outcome for mid-century Japan.  

The updated forecast imagines conditions in 2050 under current climate policies. The shocking projections headlined in many media outlets include from “extreme heat days” at 40℃ and above to be recorded in as many as 157 locations across the country, to restriction orders on outdoor activities to prevent children from playing outside and construction workers from carrying out work in open-air conditions, mounting pressures on food production suggesting that a popular Japanese pork cutlet rice dish could become a luxury item, and increasingly destructive “super typhoons” bringing severe damage across the country.  

At the same time, the forecast points to solutions, including a faster transition to renewable energy and wider adoption of electric vehicles as part of the shift towards a decarbonized society. The initiative has been supported by UNIC Tokyo, and the forecast video has been made freely available for public purposes and educational use. 

Every September since 2022, six key broadcasting stations – NHK, Nippon TV, TV Asahi, TBS, TV Tokyo and Fuji TV – have been producing a special TV show featuring the “Promise of 1.5℃.” The 2026’s installment has featured the “2050 Weather Forecast Version 2” in the programme, with anchors representing six broadcasters reporting about frontlines facing climate crisis, such as what a torrential downpour of 300 mm per hour would look like, how construction workers defend themselves from heatstroke, and how climate change is changing ranches and rice paddies. 

“With extreme weather events hitting Japan so frequently in 2026, we have seen more media partners proactively engaged in climate agenda,” says Kaoru Nemoto, Director of UNIC Tokyo. “We hope by illustrating solutions and local climate champions, media organizations can show that we can make a difference if we are committed to and act together.”