The world seems to be losing the battle against climate change and is approaching a critical limit.
This is warned by a recent report from the United Nations (UN) which reveals that, just in 2024, greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.3%.
The UN published this data at a key moment, as the climate summit COP30 in Brazil begins in a few days.
Climate change at a critical limit: the 1.5 °C threshold is at risk
This increase, the report warns, reverses the slowdown recorded during the pandemic.
Thus, it places the planet back on a dangerous warming path.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world will exceed the 1.5 °C temperature limit “in the coming years”.
Scientists agree that crossing this threshold will have catastrophic consequences.
Even if current commitments were fully met, warming would reach between 2.3 and 2.5 °C from now to 2100.
“Our mission is simple, but not easy: to make any overshoot of the 1.5 °C threshold as small and brief as possible,” declared the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.
Following this, the leader warned that humanity is “playing Russian roulette with its own future”.
The consequences of reaching critical climate change limits
With a current temperature of 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels, the Earth is already too hot for most tropical coral reefs.
If this path continues, the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica could undergo irreversible changes.
In the Amazon, scientists warn that the system is approaching a “point of no return”.
If deforestation continues, large areas could transform into savanna.
On the other hand, the World Meteorological Organization warned that the economic costs of climate-related disasters exceeded 300 billion dollars annually in the last three years.
COP30 arrives at a critical moment
The data was published days before the COP30 climate summit which will be held from November 10 to 21 in Belem, Brazil.
It will be the first conference held in the Amazon, a key region for climate regulation but threatened by deforestation.
The meeting will bring together nearly 200 countries to review national emission reduction commitments.
However, only a third of the countries submitted new targets for 2035 before the September 30 deadline.
Anne Olhoff, chief scientific editor of the report, explained to AFP that “ambition and action are far below the levels needed, both globally and collectively”.
India, China, and Russia lead the emissions record: what about Argentina
The 2024 record was mainly driven by India, followed by China, Russia, and Indonesia.
In these countries, industrial reactivation and increased coal and gas consumption offset the reductions achieved by the European Union.
Additionally, the rich economies of the G20 accounted for three-quarters of global emissions.
Among the six largest polluters, only European countries managed to reduce their greenhouse gases during 2024.
In Latin America, Brazil, as host, seeks to position the region as a key player in global decarbonization.
Meanwhile, countries like Colombia, Chile, and Mexico will push for funding for adaptation and mitigation.
Argentina faces the challenge of reconciling the expansion of Vaca Muerta and gas exports with its climate commitments, in a context of economic crisis.
“It’s not just about numbers: it’s about lives”, insisted Guterres.
He urged: “Science couldn’t be clearer. Now it’s politics that has to rise to the occasion.”
The report concludes that the time to keep the 1.5 °C goal alive “is running out quickly”.
The next five years will be decisive in determining whether the world manages to halt the advance towards a more hostile climate scenario.
