BRUSSELS, Sept. 17 Reuters - Latest pledges to reduce emissions would fail to avert catastrophic climate change, the United Nations said on Friday as pressure mounts on polluters including China and India to set more ambitious targets for the COP 26 summit in November.
The U.N. COP 26 conference aims to secure more ambitious climate action from the nearly 200 countries who signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 and agreed to try to limit human-caused global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
A U.N. analysis on Friday said that under current pledges, global emissions would be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 - far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to stave off disastrous climate change.
Without ambitious commitments, global temperatures could reach 2.7 C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century, say U.N.
If this scenario were unleashed far more than that already impacting countries in the world, they would rapidly flood into the world from destructive floods to wildfires and storms.
Global warming emission numbers are moving in the wrong direction, said U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa. What we have is not enough. Espinosa said she had received very positive signals in our talks with some countries that new commitments would arrive before the COP 26 summit in Glasgow, without going through any.
The United States and the 27 countries of the European Union who were the world's second largest emitters after China - were among those that set tougher emissions-cutting targets this year.
Nations responsible for about half the worlds emissions have yet to do so. China, India and Saudi Arabia are among them.
Brazil and Mexico submitted updated pledges that analysts said would cause higher emissions than those countries' previous targets.
COP 26 president Alok Sharma said that without action from all countries, especially the largest economies, these efforts risk being in vain. Countries including India have said they cannot cut emissions faster unless they receive more support from rich nations to invest in low-carbon energy and industries.
So far, the promised support has not arrived. The OECD said on Friday it was likely that poor countries missed their goal to contribute $100 billion in 2020 to help developing nations cope with climate change.
The U.N. said it will publish a second report on Oct. 25, assessing any new climate pledges countries make before Oct. 12.