UN Report: No Turning Point in Climate Protection - Emissions at Record High

Two weeks before the World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan, UN reports highlight the previous failures of the global community in climate protection: The concentration of climate-damaging greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2023, and the currently planned national climate actions are far from sufficient to curb further global warming as much as necessary. The reports come from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva and the UN Climate Secretariat (UN Climate Change) in Bonn. The conference will be held in Baku from November 11 to 24.

For the most common greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), the concentration in the atmosphere increased by 2.3 to 420 ppm (parts per million) in 2023. This corresponds to 151 percent of the pre-industrial level (around the year 1750), according to the WMO. The content of greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide has also continued to rise.

Too Little Ambition: Europe with Historical Responsibility

With the current national plans, greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2030 would still correspond to 51.5 gigatons of CO2. This would be only 2.6 percent below those of 2019, reports the UN Climate Secretariat. For the world to become emissions neutral by the year 2050, according to the estimate of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global greenhouse gas emissions should be 43 percent below those of 2019 by 2030.

The environmental foundation WWF sees the EU as responsible: "We expect the European states, with their historical responsibility, to contribute a groundbreaking new climate contribution that can trigger a new wave of ambition," it said. Last year, according to the WMO, in addition to high man-made CO2 emissions, forest and bush fires also contributed to the increase, as stated in the organization's greenhouse gas bulletin. It is also possible that the CO2 absorption capacity of forests has declined.

"We are clearly not on the right track to limit global warming well below two degrees and ideally to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels," WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said. The goals were set at the 2015 World Climate Conference in Paris. Simon Stiell, head of the UN Climate Secretariat (UNFCCC) in Bonn, called for more ambitious climate protection plans from all countries. "Every fraction of a degree is important because climate disasters are worsening rapidly," said Stiell.