Current national plans will see combined global emissions in 2030 fall only 2.6 percent lower than in 2019, when it should be just over 40 percent, the UN says. Photo: 123RF
A Pacific climate policy advisor hopes developed nations will start being more active in combating climate change once they see the impact in their own nations, as ambition to reduce greenhouse gases falls far short of where it needs to be.
Current national plans will see combined global emissions in 2030 fall only 2.6 percent lower than in 2019, when it should be just over 40 percent, according to the United Nations Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) report.
Adding that by 2035 greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by 60 percent compared to 2019 levels, on the way to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
It comes as countries are currently working on new NDCs due next year.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Simon Stiell said current ambition would guarantee a "human and economic trainwreck for every country", and the report "must be a turning point".
"The report's findings are stark but not surprising - current national climate plans fall miles short of what's needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy, and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country," Stiell said.
Pacific Island Climate Action Network's (PICAN) Sindra Sharma said developed countries need to immediately stop the expansion of new fossil fuel production.
Sharma said there are already devastating consequences all over the globe from climate change and hoped leaders in developed nations would take action when they saw the impacts in their own countries, like the bush fires in Australia and the flooding in New Zealand.
"Once they see how completely embedded this crisis is to all levels of society, maybe they'll actually ramp up ambition and do the right thing.
"What the report is telling us is that current NDCs set a trajectory toward global temperature rise of approximately between 2.1 and 2.8 degrees by 2100, so that really significantly overshoots the 1.5C target.
"We hear 1.5 to stay alive used as a buzzword, but for small island states, it's not at all a buzzword, it's a reality."
Sharma said with each successive COP, new commitments are made, but it seems the message had not sunk in for world leaders.
"This report should inform that new round of NDCs, saying that, look, we are so far from the ambition that we need to see."