UN issues climate change ‘red alert’ amid troubling data

Mankind needs to cut heat-trapping gas pollution by 45% between 2010 and 2030 but we are on track for 1%

Signs from Fridays for Future movement in Berlin, Germany. Ten cities joined New York and London in committing to divest from fossil fuel companies as part of efforts to combat climate change. AP

Climate activists march in an attempt to occupy the Garzweiler open-cast coal mine and nearby gas infrastructure on a day of civil disobedience near Grevenbroich, Germany. Getty

A child wears plastic bottle waste provided by climate and environmental activists during a protest in Nairobi, Kenya. Reuters

A deforested area close to Sinop, Mato Grosso state, Brazil. The number of bushfires raging in Brazil's Amazon increased 61 per cent in September last year, compared to the same period in 2019. AFP

Ice sculptures of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro comprise the artwork 'Meltdown', which was on display last September during the UN Summit On Biodiversity in New York City. AFP

A Jaguar named Ousado, who suffered second-degree burns during fires in the South American Pantanal region, rests in his cage after treatment in Brazil. AP

Cars on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The US state plans to phase out sales of new, petrol-powered cars by 2035. Bloomberg

Deadly bushfires in California burnt more than 16,000 square kilometres of land last year — more than double the previous record for the most land burnt in a single year in the state. AP

An aircraft prepares to drop fire retardant while battling a blaze in the Mendocino National Forest, California. AP

Filipino climate activists hold placards calling for climate action as a part of global climate change protests in Quezon City. Reuters

Debris collects in a river after heavy rains and floods hit Breil-sur-Roya, a French village close to the Italian border. AFP

Climate and environmental activists make their way through a forest next to the village of Shipunovo, 170 km south of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, to extinguish a peat fire. AFP

A man holds a banner with the message "United for climate" during a small climate change protest in Brussels. AP

British zoologist Andrew Bladon takes the temperature of a butterfly near Pegsdon, England. Whether a butterfly's wings absorb or reflect heat from the sun could be a matter of life and death in a warming world, British researchers said. AFP

Members of an environmental group in Seoul, South Korea, take part in a protest against climate change. EPA

Activists from various environmental groups take part in a protest against climate change in New Delhi, India. EPA

Ugandan climate change activist Vanessa Nakate takes part in a demonstration in the Luzira suburb of Kampala, Uganda. Reuters

A climate change demonstration in Vienna, Austria. AFP

An iceberg floats past Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017. AP

A polar bear stands on the ice in the Franklin Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017. AP

Governments are "nowhere close" to cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to stave off the worst effects of climate change, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a stark warning on Friday.

New data showed leaders are badly failing to meet a goal agreed to in Paris in 2015 to keep the temperature rise below 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial times this century.

According to UN climate treaty experts, known as the UNFCCC, mankind needs to cut heat-trapping gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 against 2010 levels. We are currently on track to reduce them by only 1 per cent.

"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," Mr Guterres said.

“It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5°C and meet the goals of the Paris agreement.”

The study was made up of reports from 75 countries on progress towards their national climate action plans before key climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

Mr Guterres urged "major emitters" such as the US China, India and Russia to "step up with much more ambitious emissions reductions targets" before that meeting.

"Decision-makers must walk the talk," he said.

“Long-term commitments must be matched by immediate actions to launch the decade of transformation that people and the planet so desperately need.”

Under the Paris agreement, most world governments pledged to keep global warming to "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to strive to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C.

The planet has so far warmed by 1.2°C and is headed for at least 3°C this century, increasing the risk of bushfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather that could ignite conflicts over scarce natural resources.

The report comes after the US re-entered the accord last week, after US President Joe Biden reversed a 2017 decision by his predecessor, Donald Trump, to exit the agreement while calling climate change a hoax that was harming the economy.

Mr Biden pledged to put the US on a track to net-zero emissions by 2050 to match the swift and steep global cuts that climatologists say are needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change, using curbs on fossil fuels and investments in clean energy.