UN chief: World falling ‘dangerously short’ on climate action
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 United Nations warned on Wednesday.
The report by the UN 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 preindustrial 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.
“The world can no longer avoid overshooting the 1.5-degree limit, and the consequences are already devastating,” said UN chief Antonio Guterres in a statement to launch the closely watched report.
“Deadly floods, brutal heat waves, 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.
Worsening impacts
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 C, the report said.
Scientists warn that every additional fraction of a degree above 1.5 C increases extreme weather events and the likelihood of irreversible changes to the planet, from dying coral reefs to melting permafrost.
The world has already warmed roughly 1.4 C relative to preindustrial times and crossing 1.5 C is expected in a matter of years.
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.
This latest Unep warming outlook is worse than last year’s due to the formal withdrawal of the United States from the Paris accord and upward revisions of historical emissions, said report coauthor Anne Olhoff.
Emissions growth slowed down among the G20 but the United States was a “major exception,” it added.
Among the world’s top six emitters, preliminary data for 2025 showed emissions increases in the United States, Indonesia, and China and decreases in India, Russia, and the European Union.
The United States is the world’s second-largest polluter, behind China. US President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax and rolled back clean energy policies while boosting fossil fuel production.
