Progress has been made to reduce and manage the effects of climate change but "much more action, on all fronts" is required to reach targets set by the Paris agreement, according to a report compiled by UN climate body the UNFCCC.
The report, described by the UNFCCC as a technical dialogue synthesis of the first global stocktake, outlines inputs from countries, experts and others on the progress made towards the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement, and further action needed. It will be taken into consideration at the conclusion of the stocktake, at the UN Cop 28 climate summit. The stocktake is a five-yearly undertaking to measure progress towards the Paris agreement and is intended to inform the next round of countries' emissions reductions plans, due in 2025.
The stocktake has been widely expected to show that the world is off track to align with the Paris agreement, which aims to limit warming to "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures — and preferably to 1.5°C.
The report found while the Paris deal has "inspired near-universal climate action", an "emissions gap" of between 20.3bn-23.9bn t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) exists between pledges made under countries' nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and the 1.5°C target. The window for action to meet the temperature goal is "rapidly narrowing", the report said.
Countries must increase both the ambition of NDC commitments and the speed of their implementation if the goals are to be met, it said, calling for the inclusion in NDCs of more stringent targets and concrete measures. Sufficient cost-effective solutions are already available to close the 2030 emissions gap, sometimes "more cost-effective than their high-emission alternatives", the report found. But it said policy innovation and international co-operation are essential to their effective implementation.
Scaling up renewable energy and phasing out unabated fossil fuels are "indispensable" to a transition to net zero emissions globally, the report said. It pointed specifically to electrification, energy efficiency, demand-side management and energy storage as "important elements in net zero energy systems".
Industry, transport and buildings systems must be transformed to reduce related emissions. Innovation must be accelerated alongside the rapid deployment of existing cleaner technologies, and driving down the average cost of capital of required technologies will be a "deciding factor" in meeting Paris goals.
The world must take "decisive action in this critical decade", president-designate of Cop 28 Sultan al-Jaber said today. He called on "leaders from both the public and private sector to come to Cop 28 with real and actionable commitments".
Finance gap
International public climate finance remains a "prime enabler" for action, but is not enough to address the gap between financing needs and current flows, the report found.
While climate finance from developed to developing nations has increased since the Paris agreement entered into force, this must be rapidly increased "to meet urgent needs", it said.
It will be necessary to "unlock and redeploy trillions of dollars", including by ensuring that financial flows are consistent with lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and with climate resilience. Finance must come from a wide range of sources, but "increased private-sector engagement is needed", the report said.
And "collective progress on adaptation and loss and damage must undergo a step change", it said. Adaptation refers to the adjustment of systems or communities to avoid the effects of climate change where possible, while loss and damage describes the unavoidable and irreversible effects of such change.
Financial support for adaptation is growing at a faster rate than mitigation finance, and ambition is rising, but "most observed adaptation efforts are fragmented, incremental, sector-specific and unequally distributed across regions", the report found. Funding for adaptation and for loss and damage must be rapidly scaled up "from expanded and innovative sources", it said.
Discussions about loss and damage will be key at Cop 28, as countries hash out how to set up and finance the fund they agreed last year to establish.
