The world is "failing to get a grip" on climate change, the United Nations has warned, as an assessment of climate pledges shows only minor progress on reducing emissions this decade. In a report released just weeks before high-stakes negotiations on limiting global warming, the UN climate change organisation said the world is not acting with sufficient urgency to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
With temperatures soaring and 2023 expected to become the warmest year in human history, scientists say the pressure on world leaders to curb planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution has never been more urgent. The UN found that combined climate plans from nearly 200 nations would put the world on a path for 2030 carbon emissions just 2% below 2019 levels. That is far short of the 43% fall that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says is needed to limit warming to the Paris deal target of 1.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era. "Every fraction of a degree matters, but we are severely off track