By Abbas Nazil
A decade after the Paris Agreement, global climate action is failing to match the accelerating impacts of global warming, with the latest COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, highlighting the lack of meaningful progress on fossil fuel reduction and deforestation.
Despite growing evidence of the urgency of climate change, countries are not stepping up their efforts, and in some cases, actions are becoming more irrational in the face of worsening environmental threats, according to climate analysts.
The Paris Agreement, established in 2015, aimed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C through nationally determined targets, with the expectation that countries would progressively strengthen their commitments via a ratchet mechanism.
Initially, there were signs of improvement. Estimates from the Climate Action Tracker suggested the world was on a path to 3.6°C warming in 2015, which appeared to decrease to 2.6°C by 2021 due to policy adjustments and early action.
However, the latest Climate Action Tracker report ahead of COP30 paints a grim picture, showing that for the fourth consecutive year there has been little or no measurable global progress.
Approximately 95 percent of countries missed this year’s deadline for updating their climate targets, and efforts by a few progressive nations are being counteracted by others delaying or rolling back policies.
While renewable energy generation is expanding faster than anticipated, it is being offset by continued large-scale investments in fossil fuels, and improvements in electricity generation alone are insufficient to address harder sectors such as agriculture, aviation, and steel production.
Adaptation efforts are similarly inadequate, with cities still being built on vulnerable coastlines and insufficient measures being taken to prepare for rising seas and extreme weather. Reports indicate that adaptation progress is either too slow, has stalled, or is moving in the wrong direction.
Political factors are also driving the slowdown, with some governments deprioritising climate action due to competing crises like rising living costs, and others led by climate-denying politicians withdrawing from commitments, as exemplified by the US exit from Paris.
Experts warn that as the impacts of climate change continue to worsen, irrational decision-making fueled by fear may prevent governments from taking necessary long-term actions, potentially intensifying global crises and threatening the stability of human civilisation.
The combination of insufficient mitigation, delayed adaptation, political inertia, and societal irrationality suggests that without urgent, coordinated international action, the global response to climate change will remain inadequate, with severe consequences for ecosystems, economies, and human populations worldwide.
The current situation highlights the need for renewed global commitment, stronger enforcement mechanisms, and comprehensive strategies to both reduce emissions and prepare communities for unavoidable climate impacts.
