According to a new U.N. report, countries are not doing enough to keep the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the current century. In the assessment released on Wednesday, the United Nations said, “the combined climate commitments by the 193 parties in the Paris agreement may leave the world on track to experience warming of about 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century”. The analysis comes ahead of the following month’s COP27 climate change summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where the shadow of the 2015s Paris agreement will loom.
A vital goal of the Paris agreement is limiting global warming to below 2, preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to pre-industrial levels. The task is enormous, with the United Nations noting that 1.5 degrees Celsius is considered the “upper bound” to avoid the worst consequences of the climate emergency.