World is not on track to meet Paris Agreement: UN report

New Delhi: The world is not on track to meet the long-term goals set out in the Paris Agreement for limiting global temperature, UN report warned on Friday, calling for a “commitment” to decisive action.

The report comes ahead of the “global stocktake” at the upcoming UN climate change conference COP28, which will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in December 2023.

The global stocktake was designed under the Paris Agreement to assess our global response to the climate crisis and chart a better way forward.

The global stocktake is held every five years and is intended to inform the next round of nationally determined contributions to be put forward by 2025.

The report was releaded by the Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) called for “greater ambition and accelerating action”.

“I urge governments to carefully study the findings of the report and ultimately understand what it means for them and the ambitious action they must take next. It is the same for businesses, communities and other key stakeholders” Simon Stiell said.

The report summarizes 17 key findings from technical deliberations in 2022 and 2023 on the implementation status of the Paris Agreement on climate change and its long-term goals, based on the best scientific information.

The Agreement committed all countries to limit temperature rises as close as possible to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

It found that in all areas, ranging from mitigating climate change impacts to addressing loss and damage, “much more needs to be done”.

“While there are well-known gaps, the technical findings highlighted existing and emerging opportunities and creative solutions to bridge these gaps,” UNFCCC said.

The report lays a strong scientific and technical base for the conclusion of the first global stocktake in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28.

“This global stocktake report provides clear direction on how we can meet the expectations of the Paris Agreement by taking decisive action in this critical decade,” said COP28 President-Designate Dr. Sultan Al Jaber.

“To keep 1.5 within reach we must act with ‘ambition and urgency’ to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030. That is why the COP28 Presidency has put forward an ambitious action agenda”.

“I am calling on leaders from both the public and private sector to come to COP28 with real and actionable commitments to address climate change. We need to rapidly decarbonize both the supply side and demand side of the energy system at the same time” he further added.

The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.