UN Chief Says the World is Dangerously Short on Climate Action

A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) analysis highlights the gap between what people say and what they do to address global warming, and the challenges political leaders will face at the COP31 climate summit in November.

The annual Emissions Gap Report warned that even if countries fully meet their latest climate pledges, global temperatures might still rise 2.6°C over pre-industrial levels by 2100.

That would blow past the historic goal set in Paris in 2015: keeping warming far below 2°C, while aiming for a safer 1.5°C.

Decades of inadequate action had “lost” all hope of staying inside 1.5°C, the report added.The world can no longer pretend that we are not on a pathway to overshoot the 1.5 degree limit and that the consequences will not be devastating,” UN leader Antonio Guterres said in a statement releasing the carefully regarded study. Deadly floods, terrible heatwaves, blazing wildfires, lost lives, devastated economies, rising disparities and those least culpable suffering first and worst.”

The analysis noted that globally, greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 were generally similar to the record levels seen in 2024, with the difference between the two years too minor to call.

Carbon emissions from burning coal, oil and gas, the biggest driver of climate change, were marginally higher in 2025 than in 2024.

We need deep and immediate cuts to protect humanity from worsening impacts, but instead emissions remain at record levels, Guterres said. And national climate plans and current policies are catastrophically inadequate. The analysis predicted that existing approaches will result in warming of 2.8C by the end of the century.

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