Gaps in ambition threaten climate goals: UN report

The world is perilously off course in meeting the Paris climate deal's goals for slashing carbon pollution and boosting finance for the developing world, according to the UN's first progress report on the accord. The 2015 Paris treaty has successfully driven climate action, but "much more is needed now on all fronts," said the report, which will underpin a crucial climate summit in Dubai at the end of the year. "The world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement," including capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, the report said. Global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and drop sharply thereafter to keep the 1.5C target in view, the stocktake said, drawing from a major scientific assessment by the UN's IPCC science advisory panel. Achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 -- another Paris goal -- will also require phasing out the burning of all fossil fuels whose emissions cannot be captured, it said. How quickly to purge the global economy of oil, gas and coal will be hotly contested at the 196-nation two-week COP28 talks. The stocktake report also says that clean power must be dramatically ramped up.