World 'still on track for catastrophic heating'

The world is still on track for a catastrophic 2.6C of heating as countries have not made sufficiently strong climate pledges, while emissions from fossil fuels have hit a record high, two major reports have found.

- Oliver Milman Damian Carrington

Despite promises, governments' new emission-cutting plans submitted for the Cop30 climate talks taking place in Belém, Brazil, have done little to avert dangerous global heating, according to the Climate Action Tracker update.

The world is now anticipated to heat up by 2.6C above preindustrial times by the end of the century the same temperature rise forecast last year. This level of heating easily breaches the thresholds set out in the Paris climate pact, which every country agreed to, and would set the world spiralling into a catastrophic new era of extreme weather and severe hardships.

A separate report found the fossil fuel emissions driving the climate crisis will rise by about 1% this year to hit a record high, but that the rate of rise has more than halved in recent years.

Over the past decade emissions from coal, oil and gas have risen by 0.8% a year, compared with 2.0% a year during the decade before. The accelerating rollout of renewable energy is now close to supplying the annual rise in the world's demand for energy, but it has yet to surpass it.