Current Affairs 15 September 2026

UNEP Releases Report on Limiting Climate Overshoot and Its Impacts.

UNEP’s Limiting Overshoot report warns that global warming is likely to exceed the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target.
Warming could peak at ~1.8°C in the most optimistic scenario; other scenarios exceed 2°C.
Africa could face 250–300 days of heatwave conditions annually by 2065–2100.
Over 60% of urban populations in West and Central Africa could face extreme heat stress by late century.
Drylands, forests, wetlands and coral reefs face potentially irreversible climate damage.
Urgent CO₂ and methane emission cuts, stronger disease monitoring and resilient power systems are needed.

18th BRICS Summit was held in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026.
Theme: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.
China will host the 19th BRICS Summit in 2027.
Key discussions covered disaster management, MSME cooperation and environmental initiatives.
BRICS leaders also held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.

SAWEN General Assembly: Held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 10–11, 2026.
Kathmandu Declaration: Adopted to strengthen cooperation against illegal wildlife trade and transnational wildlife crime.
Key Measures: Intelligence-led investigations, anti-money laundering, asset recovery and prosecution of criminal networks.
Members: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan.
Objective: Protect regional biodiversity, security and sustainable development.

NHAI will upgrade the 1033 National Highway Helpline with AI and real-time location tracking.
Next Generation 1033 will use Voice AI and Computer-Aided Dispatch for faster emergency response.
It will provide multilingual AI support and automatically locate callers.
The helpline currently covers 1.46 lakh+ km of National Highways and handles around 15,000 calls daily.
IHMCL will design, deploy and maintain the upgraded system.

No charges: UPI transactions up to ₹2,000 will remain free.
RuPay debit cards: Banks/payment providers cannot levy direct or indirect charges.
Legal basis: Notification issued under Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
MDR: May apply only to eligible merchant transactions above ₹2,000.
UPI scale: In August, UPI processed 24.51 billion transactions worth ₹29.82 trillion.