The Climate Report Card says countries are trying, but they badly need to improve

Countries are far from achieving these goals. Current climate pledges would put the world on track for a temperature rise of 2.5 degrees Celsius or so by 2100, assuming countries follow through with their plans. In order to keep global warming at safer levels, global emissions must fall by about 60 percent by 2035, which will likely require a much faster expansion of energy sources such as wind, solar or nuclear power and a sharp decline in pollution. Caused by fossil fuels. Such as oil, coal and natural gas.

The report said the window of opportunity to keep warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius was “rapidly narrowing.”

The new report is part of what is known as Global inventory. When countries agreed to the Paris Agreement, they agreed to meet every five years, starting in 2023, to formally assess how the fight against climate change is going and see if they should step up their efforts.

The report, which took nearly two years to prepare, is supposed to serve as the basis for the next round of UN climate negotiations, known as COP28, which will begin in late November in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. There, countries will discuss how to respond to the global assessment and what more they can do.

“I urge governments to carefully study the report’s findings and understand what it ultimately means for them, and what ambitious action they need to take next,” said UN climate chief Simon Steele. “The global assessment process is a defining moment to achieve greater ambition and accelerate action.”

The report avoids pinpointing any single country for success or failure, highlighting one of the thorniest dynamics in global climate talks. Everyone agrees that the world as a whole must cut emissions faster, but countries disagree sharply about who exactly should do more. Developing countries like India say rich emitters like the United States and Europe should reduce the use of fossil fuels more quickly to give poorer countries more time to clean up their economies. US officials often point out that China needs to do more now that the country is the world’s largest emitter.