As global leaders prepare for the COP30 meeting in Brazil there are new warnings that despite significant progress, the world is in grave danger of missing its climate targets.

UN Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell (above) made his call for action as the organisation published its  Nationally Determined Contributions Synthesis Report.

He said: “We are in a new era of climate action and ambition. Countries are setting national climate targets – and plans to achieve them – that differ in pace and scale to any that have come before.
“Ten years after we adopted the Paris Agreement, we can say simply – it is delivering real progress. But it must work much faster and fairer, and that acceleration must start now.

“The scale and severity of the climate crisis has never been clearer. Brutal climate-driven droughts, floods, storms and wildfires are hitting every nation harder each year, wrecking millions of lives and vital infrastructure, taking shreds off GDP and pushing up prices.

“At the same time, the opportunities in climate action are monumental.”

Stiell  continued: “The rewards for those taking strong climate actions are measured in millions of new jobs and trillions in new investment.  As the global shift to clean energy continues to scale, the dividends to follow will be far greater still, as climate action emerges as the economic growth and jobs engine of the 21st century.

“Market logic dictates that this clean energy transition will continue at great scale and pace. But an equitable global transition – where every country benefits from clean energy and climate resilience – requires clear policies and plans, across every country and every sector, and more support for many nations, especially those that did least to cause this global crisis.”

He said the NDC Synthesis Report highlights the progress being made and the major challenges still remaining, although this data is limited to those national climate plans formally submitted by September 30.

The report said this new generation of NDCs show a step-change in terms of quality, credibility and economic breadth. NDCs are increasingly responding to the Global Stocktake, with 88% of countries saying their NDC was informed by the outcomes of the GST, and 81% indicating specifically how this was the case.

Countries are increasingly taking a whole-of-economy, whole-of-society approach, with 89% containing economy-wide targets. It added adaptation and resilience are becoming increasingly important. Almost three-quarters (73%) of new NDCs include adaptation components.
Stiell  added: “While we caution against drawing global conclusions from this report, it still contains some green shoots of good news: countries are making progress, and laying out clear stepping stones towards net-zero emissions. We also know that change is not linear and that some countries have a history of overdelivering.

“We are equally mindful that the data set in today’s report provides quite a limited picture, as the NDCs it synthesises represent around one-third of global emissions.”

“Through UN-convened climate cooperation and national efforts, humanity is now clearly bending the emissions curve downwards for the first time, although still not nearly fast enough,” Stiell explained. “So while the direction of travel is improving every year, we have a serious need for more speed, and for helping more countries take stronger climate actions.

“But this is why the Paris Agreement has a ratchet mechanism, to keep raising climate ambition, until collectively we are on track to avoid the worst climate impacts by limiting warming to 1.5°C this century, as science demands.

“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.

“That acceleration must start now.  Much more support will be needed for many, especially those who did least to cause this global crisis.”