Why climate action now comes down to speed, finance and cooperation

Just over a decade ago, the world was heading towards more than 4°C of warming over pre-industrial levels. Climate action since the Paris Agreement has lowered that trajectory to 2.3°C if current national commitments are fully delivered.

The United Nations has been at the centre of those efforts, pushing for stronger national plans, a faster transition to renewable energy and greater attention to adaptation, climate justice and the financing needs of developing countries.

But progress to limit warming has come as the climate itself continues to heat up. The past 11 years have been the hottest on record, with heat, drought, floods, storms and wildfires taking a growing toll on lives, economies and development.

And the world is still on course to exceed the 1.5°C threshold, at least temporarily.

Against that backdrop, the next phase of climate action is less about setting new promises than delivering on those already made, while pushing ambition much further.

The 1.5°C limit refers to the average rise in global temperature above pre-industrial levels over decades. It is not determined by a single unusually hot year.

An overshoot means temperatures rise above that threshold for a period, reach a peak and, if emissions are cut deeply enough, eventually begin to fall again.

But that decline is not guaranteed, it will depend on the choices governments make now and in the years ahead.

Even if current national climate plans and additional net-zero pledges are fully implemented, warming could still peak at around 1.8°C, according to a recent UN Environment Programme report.

That difference may sound small, but it matters. The higher temperatures climb, and the longer they stay there, the greater the risks.

“Every fraction of a degree will cost lives, destroy livelihoods, deepen inequality, and push ecosystems closer to irreversible damage,” Secretary General António Guterres has warned.

The pace of action matters because the gap between current plans and what the science requires remains very large. 

Countries responsible for nearly 90 per cent of global emissions have submitted updated national climate plans, known as NDCs. But even if those plans are fully implement, they are expected to reduce emissions by only around 10 per cent by 2035.

To keep the 1.5°C goal within reach, emissions would need to fall by roughly 60 per cent over the same period.

Closing that gap means faster cuts in emissions, particularly methane and other short lived climate pollutants, while halting deforestation and accelerating the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Countries also need the infrastructure to support that shift, including modern electricity grids, more storage and greater use of clean electricity in transport, heating and industry.

Moving faster can also strengthen energy security. Three out of four people live in countries that import more fossil fuels than they export, leaving them vulnerable when conflict or other disruptions affect global supplies and prices. Renewable energy can reduce that dependence.

As Guterres has put it, “there are no embargoes on sunshine and no price spikes for wind.”

Not all countries have the same resources to make the shift to clean energy.

Developing countries often face much higher borrowing costs for renewable energy projects, making investment in clean power, grids and storage harder even where the potential is enormous.

The UN has repeatedly called for cheaper finance, reforms to multilateral development banks and greater private investment in developing countries.

Finance also shapes who benefits from the transition. A just transition should help workers and communities adapt to economic change, create decent jobs and give developing countries a larger role in the growing clean-energy economy.

That includes the minerals needed for batteries and other technologies: Producing countries should be able to capture more value from those resources rather than simply exporting raw materials.

Cutting emissions is essential to limit future warming, but it cannot erase the climate impacts that people are already experiencing today.

The recent floods and landslides in Nepal and China have again shown how exposed communities and infrastructure are to extreme weather. A strong El Niño expected to persist into early 2027 could add to those risks in several regions, including the Greater Horn of Africa and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

This is why adaptation is so important. In practice, it means helping people and countries cope with the effects of climate change that can no longer be avoided.In practice, this can include building stronger roads, homes and public services; supporting more resilient agriculture and ecosystems; improving water management; and expanding early-warning systems so communities have more time to prepare for floods, droughts, storms and heatwaves.

Adaptation also needs more funding, especially for the countries and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts and already dealing with climate-related loss and damage

No country can tackle climate change entirely on its own.

Governments set their own climate policies, but many of the systems needed to make them work cross borders, from energy markets and finance to technology and supply chains. Greenhouse gas emissions do not stop at national borders either.

Cooperation can help countries speed up the renewable energy transition, strengthen resilience and make finance easier to access.

That does not mean everyone has to move at the same pace. Some have more resources and capacity, while others face much higher financial or technological barriers.

The challenge is to help more countries overcome those barriers and move faster, even as geopolitical tensions currently make international cooperation harder.

Those priorities are at the centre of the Secretary General’s Climate Summit on 23 September at UN Headquarters. Its objectives can be summed up in three phrases: accelerate the transition, unlock finance and protect people.

The meeting will bring together governments, development banks, business, finance and civil society to focus on practical barriers to implementation.

Also, as part of the Summit, Solutions Dialogues will take place during the week, focusing on practical ways to accelerate action on energy, oceans, adaptation, methane, finance, information integrity and green industrialization.

The focus is on turning existing commitments into action and on what can be done together to accelerate delivery.

You can follow the summit on UNWebTV.

More information is available on the Summit’s official website.