World will miss climate targets if fossil fuels are not phased out, says UN

Governments around the world are failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet the goals of the Paris agreement and stave off climate disaster, a major report by the UN has found.

- Fiona Harvey

Meeting the goals will require "phasing out all unabated fossil fuels", the report says, in an acknowledgment that some oil-producing countries may find hard to take.

The need to phase out fossil fuels has not been explicitly adopted by the UN before - in successive rounds of climate talks - and language over "phasing down" has caused controversy at the annual UN climate talks.

There is a "rapidly narrowing window" for governments to move faster, the report warns, as global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 to limit temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Emissions are still rising, however, and there is a gap of 20 to 23 gigatonnes of CO₂ between the cuts needed by 2030 and the world's current emissions trajectory.

The report, which was due next week but was published hurriedly in draft form yesterday, will form the basis of the first "global stocktake" under the 2015 Paris agreement.