Ahead of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, the United Nations issued a stark warning about global efforts to slow the rise in average temperatures, the Financial Times reports.
Beginning Nov. 6, scientists, global leaders, non-governmental organizations, and others will gather for COP30, focusing on "accelerating" climate impacts and adaptation.
On Nov. 4, the UN Environment Programme published its Emissions Gap Report for 2025, subtitled "Off Target," measuring progress toward goals to curb emissions worldwide and slow rising temperatures.
Back in 2016, the Paris Agreement set a threshold to cap rising temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
In late October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres conceded that exceeding that benchmark had become "inevitable," adding that "the path to a liveable future gets steeper every day."
However, Guterres was resolute and pivoted to adaptation, proposing nations "make sure that the overshoot is as short as possible and as low in intensity as possible to avoid tipping points."
Under the Paris Agreement, countries pledged to take specific actions, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs.
In the complete 2025 Emissions Report, the UN cited "significant uncertainty" about remaining on track for these goals, noting that the United States' withdrawal from the agreement in 2026 "will have significant implications for [UN] estimates" and that the world may be headed for a "climate breakdown."
The report found that the U.S. has the third-highest global emissions, behind China and the European Union. It repeatedly observed that America's reversal on NDCs would significantly "cancel out" gains at the global level.
According to the report, heat-trapping gas emissions spiked 2.3% in 2024, compared with 1.6% in 2023.
An increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather is just one of the many dangers exacerbated by higher temperatures and warmer seas.
These factors create a catastrophic feedback loop that intensifies severe weather, such as hurricanes. Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and heatwaves have always occurred, but this supercharging effect makes them costlier, more destructive, and deadlier.
While Guterres described "overshooting" targets as "inevitable," he remained committed to action.
The UN Secretary-General observed that it was "fundamental" to pay heed to Indigenous communities, adding that the "best guardians of nature are precisely the Indigenous communities."
Guterres also pointed to another, more encouraging inevitability: a booming clean energy transition.
"We are seeing a renewables revolution, and the transition will inevitably accelerate," Guterres said, "and there will be no way in which humankind will be able to use all the oil and gas already discovered."