Government action on climate change must take a ‘quantum leap’ in the coming months, otherwise hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5°C will soon be dead, the UN warns in a report published on Thursday, highlighting the lack of significant progress over the past year.
“Around the world, people are paying a terrible price” for inaction in the face of global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a video message accompanying the launch of the report.
"Record emissions mean record sea temperatures supercharging monster hurricanes; record heat is turning forests into tinder boxes and cities into saunas," he stressed.
According to the new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), published ahead of COP29 in Azerbaijan, the greenhouse gas emission reduction policies currently being implemented by countries would lead to a "catastrophic" 3.1°C increase in global warming this century compared with the pre-industrial era.
Even with all the promises to do better, global temperatures would rise by 2.6°C, leading to a series of irreversible "tipping points," the report warns. These include collapsing ice caps, uncontrollable rising seas and an increase in extreme weather phenomena.
“We need global mobilisation on a scale and pace never seen before, starting right now before the next round of climate pledges,” otherwise the goal of capping rising temperatures at 1.5°C, set in the Paris Agreement on climate change, "will soon be dead," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen warned.
To avoid exceeding the limit set by the 2016 Paris Agreement, the United Nations says countries must collectively commit to reducing their annual greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 and by 57% by 2035, compared with 2019 levels.
"We are teetering on a planetary tight rope,” Secretary-General Guterres warned. “Either leaders bridge the emissions gap or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most."
