PARIS, Oct 21 — Global commitments to cut planet-heating emissions are falling far short of the Paris climate goals and put the world on course for 2.6°C warming this century, the UN warned today.
The report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) lays bare the chasm between rhetoric and action when it comes to tackling global warming, and the challenge before political leaders at November’s COP31 climate summit.
Even if countries deliver their latest climate pledges in full, global temperatures could still rise 2.6°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, said the annual Emissions Gap Report.
That would blow past the historic goal agreed in Paris: keeping warming well below 2°C while striving for a safer 1.5°C. Any chance of keeping to 1.5°C had been “lost” due to decades of insufficient climate action, the report said.
