How is the world doing on climate change?

Not great

This NPR article is based on the Emissions Gap Report, UNEP, 2024, and the key takeaways from this report are as follows:

1. The increase in total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 1.3 % from 2022 levels is above the average rate in the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2010–2019), when GHG emissions growth averaged 0.8 % per year.

2. The world needs to reduce annual emissions until 2035 by 7.5 % for 1.5C, and by 4% for 2.0C.

3. If enhanced action that goes beyond current NDCs is delayed until 2030, annual reductions in emissions until 2035 need to be 15% for 1.5C, and 8% for 2.0C.

4. Emission changes from 2022 to 2023 were -1.4% for the U.S., -7.5% for the EU, +5.2% for China, and +6.1% for India.

5. Current policies in place across the globe would lead to 3.1C by 2100 and continue to increase beyond 2100.

6. The techno-economic mitigation costs sufficient to bridge the emission gap is about US$200/tCO2e.

The following is the lead paragraph for the NPR article:

It’s report card season for climate change.

Each year, the United Nations takes stock of whether countries are on track to cut carbon emissions and limit global warming.

The grade this year: needs more improvement than ever.

Global greenhouse gas emissions rose to a new record in 2023, and if countries do not change course, the world will see warming of more than 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century.

That would blow past the targets set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement: Countries have agreed to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.