The likelihood of global warming exceeding the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement is alarmingly high and continues to rise. Policymakers should urgently address the escalating risks of climate change, particularly those impacting vulnerable countries, by considering the full spectrum of approaches. Emissions reductions must be prioritized and accelerated. This requires an ambitious and orderly phasing out of fossil fuels, as well as a clear differentiation between the pace of phase-out in industrialized and the least industrialized countries. Efforts to increase protection from impacts of a disrupted climate (“adaptation”) should be expanded, along with the international financing to support them, as well as new mechanisms to plan, measure and anticipate at national level and across critical sectors such as agriculture. Carbon dioxide removal techniques should be developed and deployed to help achieve net-zero – and, ultimately, net-negative – emissions, balancing the benefits of biological and industrial methods, and enabling them through smart policies and financing. Countries should adopt a moratorium on the deployment of solar radiation modification and large-scale outdoor experiments that would carry risk of significant transboundary harm, while expanding research, and pursuing international governance dialogues.