UN warns world headed for up to 2.9°C warming

The world is headed for 2.5 to 2.9°C warming over the pre-industrial period, a new United Nations report released on Monday said, painting a bleak picture of climate action globally.

- Jayashree Nandi

This year, until the beginning of October, 86 days recorded average temperatures over 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. September was the hottest recorded month, with global average temperatures 1.8°C above preindustrial levels; global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased by 1.2% from 2021 to 2022 to reach a new record of 57.4 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (GtCO2e), United Nations Environment Programme's Emissions Gap Report 2023 titled 'Broken Record' said.

GHG across the G20 also increased by 1.2% in 2022; they should in fact fall rapidly if Paris Agreement goals were to be met. Predicted 2030 emissions must be cut by at least 28-42% compared to current policy scenarios to get on track for the 2°C and 1.5°C goals of the Paris Agreement respectively. Fully implementing and continuing efforts implied by unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) would put the world on track for limiting temperature rise to 2.9°C, the report said, highlighting that the world is on track to breach both levels, although it did not say when this would happen.