Countries' climate plans far from reaching 1.5C goal, UN report says

Climate change is a rising issue in the world today, with many experts warning of the worsening situation. The United Nations issued a similar warning, saying the climate plans from countries remain far from reaching the goal set during the 2015 agreement.

A report by the UN’s climate experts published Wednesday found that the plans by countries to adhere to the 2015 Paris Climate Accords are not enough to limit the rising temperatures by 1.5 degrees Celsius. The experts also said the world is still failing to take urgent action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degree Celsius world,” said UN Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell in a statement. “To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.”

Stiell also expressed disappointment, saying that while all the countries involved agreed to review and strengthen their climate plans last year during the COP26 summit, only 24 countries provided an updated or new climate plan since that time. Bolivia, Uganda, India, and Indonesia are among the 24 countries that turned in updated or new climate plans.

The experts said the emissions, when compared to 2010 levels, must fall by 43 percent by 2030 in order to meet the goal in the 2015 Paris agreement. However, the report said that the current commitments by countries would increase emissions by 10.6 percent by 2030, which was an improvement compared to the report in 2021.

Back in June, UN chief Antonio Guterres called out developed nations and their use of natural resources. Guterres said if global consumption of the planet’s resources were at the level of the richest countries in the world, “we would need more than three planet Earths.”

“We know what to do and increasingly we have the tools to do it, but we still lack leadership and cooperation. So today, I appeal to leaders in all sectors – lead us out of this mess,” said Guterres at the time.