A recent report by the Climate Action Tracker highlights a concerning lack of progress in addressing global heating, revealing that current policies are on track to raise global temperatures by 2.7°C by the end of the century.
This temperature rise far exceeds the 1.5°C target world leaders have promised to limit global warming to, the analysis found.
The expected rise in global temperatures has remained largely unchanged since 2021, with the Climate Action Tracker consortium noting “minimal progress” this year. The report’s estimates have not shifted since the Cop26 summit in Glasgow three years ago.
“We have clearly failed to bend the curve,” said Sofia Gonzales-Zuñiga, the lead author of the analysis from Climate Analytics.
While government pledges and targets bring the projected temperature rise to a slightly lower 2.1°C, this figure also has not changed since 2021. The most optimistic scenario, which takes into account the rapid development of clean technologies, sees a slight increase in warming from 1.8°C last year to 1.9°C this year.
A study released last month found that half of the 68,000 heat-related deaths in Europe in 2022 were attributed to the 1.3°C of global heating already experienced. If the planet reaches higher temperatures as predicted, the risk of catastrophic and irreversible climate extremes will increase dramatically.
