World falling ‘dangerously short’ on climate action

PARIS

This aerial photograph shows the parched bed of the upper part of Lake Gruyere on October 19, 2026, near Morlon, as the region remains under a Level 4 ('High Danger') drought warning on Switzerland's National Drought Platform. (AFP Photo)

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 degrees Celsius warming this century, the U.N. warned on Oct. 21.

The report by the United Nations Environment Program (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 in Antalya.

Even if countries deliver their latest climate pledges in full, global temperatures could still rise 2.6 degrees 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 degrees while striving for a safer 1.5 degrees. Any chance of keeping to 1.5 degrees had been “lost” due to decades of insufficient climate action, the report said.

“The world can no longer avoid overshooting the 1.5-degree limit, and the consequences are already devastating,” said U.N. chief Antonio Guterres in a statement to launch the closely-watched report.

“Deadly floods, brutal heatwaves, raging wildfires, lost lives, crippled economies, deepening inequalities, and those least responsible are suffering first and worst.”

Overall, global greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 were broadly on a par with record levels in 2024, with the difference between the two years too small to call, the report said.

Carbon emissions just from burning coal, oil and gas, the main driver of climate change, rose slightly in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Guterres said deep and immediate cuts were needed to protect humanity from worsening impacts but instead “emissions remain at record levels. And national climate plans and current policies fall dangerously short.”

Sticking just with current policies would see warming hit 2.8 degrees, the report said.

The G20 accounts for three-quarters of global emissions but Guterres said “all countries, especially the big emitters, must do more” to stop heating the planet.

Among the world’s top-six emitters, preliminary data for 2025 showed emissions increases in the U.S., Indonesia and China and decreases in India, Russia and the European Union.

The U.S. is the world’s second-largest polluter, behind China. U.S. President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax and rolled back clean energy policies while boosting fossil fuel production.

UNEP executive secretary Inger Andersen told reporters that no country was shielded from climate change and impacts were being felt “on every nation on the planet, including the U.S.”

Guterres agreed there was a climate “leadership gap” but said overshooting 1.5 degrees “is not surrender.”