The world has officially missed its key climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the UN Environment Programme says.
The annual Emissions Gap Report warns the planet will likely breach the 1.5°C threshold within the next decade.
UNEP says reversing this overshoot will demand “faster and bigger” cuts to greenhouse gas emissions than ever before.
Lead author Anne Olhoff says deep cuts could delay the overshoot, “but we can no longer totally avoid it.”
The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to keep global temperature rise below 2°C, with 1.5°C as the ideal limit.
Yet even if current national pledges are met, the world is still heading for 2.3–2.5°C of warming, UNEP found.
That’s only a small improvement from last year, despite new pledges from major emitters like China.
The report lands ahead of the COP30 climate summit, where nations will face renewed pressure to fund faster climate action.
Scientists warn that each extra degree of warming drives deadlier heatwaves, droughts, wildfires — and devastates coral reefs.
Despite progress since the Paris deal, emissions hit a record 57.7 gigatonnes last year — proving the world’s fossil fuel addiction is far from over.