PARIS (AFP) - A recent UN report reveals that most countries have failed to update their carbon-cutting plans as part of the Paris Agreement, and even those that have, will only reduce emissions by 10% by 2035, far short of the 1.5°C target.  
While progress is being made, extreme weather events continue to worsen, highlighting the urgency of stronger action. With COP30 in Brazil approaching, only 64 countries have submitted updated plans, and major emitters like China and the U.S. are under scrutiny for their weak targets or lack of commitment.
The extra calculation incorporated elements from major polluters such as China and the European Union, which have not submitted full official updated pledges.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that slow action from nations meant it was “inevitable” that efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius would fail in the short term, unleashing devastating impacts during a period of overshoot as countries worked to pull temperatures back down again by the end of the century.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the estimated 10% emissions cut suggested that “humanity is now clearly bending the emissions curve downwards for the first time, although still not nearly fast enough.”
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said emissions must fall 60% by 2035, from 2019 levels, for a good chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels — the more ambitious goal of the Paris climate deal.
“The science is equally clear that temperatures absolutely can and must be brought back down to 1.5 C as quickly as possible after any temporary overshoot, by substantially stepping up the pace on all fronts,” Stiell said in a statement.
The two-week COP30 climate negotiations in the Amazon, which start on Nov. 10, are tasked with galvanizing momentum in the face of a hostile United States, geopolitical tensions, economic concerns and fears that the most ambitious climate targets are already slipping out of reach.