World ‘far from meeting’ emissions targets, says UN

The United Nations says current pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track to exceed the limit for countries on global warming agreed in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The United Nations climate office said on Wednesday its latest estimate based on 193 national emissions targets would see temperatures rise to 2.5C above pre-industrial averages by the end of the century.

This is one degree higher than the ambitious goal set in the Paris Pact of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

The report found that emissions will also rise by 10.6% by 2030 from 2010 levels, down slightly from estimates of 13.7% last year.

Scientists say that emissions of the gases that warm the planet must in fact be reduced by 45% by the end of the decade.

“We are still a long way from the scale and pace of emissions reductions needed to put us on the right path to a [1.5 C] world,” the head of the United Nations climate office, Simon Stiell, said in a statement. “To keep this goal alive, national governments must strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them over the next eight years.

The report was released ahead of next month’s United Nations climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where countries will again try to increase their targets.