In the 10th years since the signing of the Paris Agreement, which is the basis for international climate action, humanity has made impressive progress. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and more reliable, and electric vehicles are getting better every year.
Yet by virtually every key indicator used to measure progress, we are still behind what we need to achieve to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, according to report published on Wednesday by a coalition of climate groups – and we are running out of time to right the ship.
“All systems are flashing red,” Clea Schumer, a researcher at the World Resources Institute, one of the organizations involved in the report, said on a call with reporters last week. “There is no doubt that we are largely doing the right thing, we are just not moving fast enough.”
The Paris Agreement aims to prevent the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. To measure progress towards this goal, the report analyzed emissions from 45 different sectors of the global economy and environment, measuring everything from building electrification to the operate of coal in energy to global meat consumption.
The grim thing is that none of the indicators measured in the report are where they need to be to keep the world on track to meet its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. Six of the 45 indicators are ‘off track’ – progress is noticeable but not sufficient – while almost 30 are ‘off track’, meaning progress is far too sluggish. Meanwhile, five are heading in the “wrong direction”, meaning the situation is getting worse, not better, and requires an urgent U-turn. (The report says there is insufficient data to measure the remaining five indicators, which include peatland degradation and restoration, food waste and the share of up-to-date zero-carbon buildings).
Experts say one of the most consistently abnormal indicators has been global efforts to phase out coal, one of… greatest contributors greenhouse gas emissions. Although the share of coal in global electricity production declined slightly in 2024, total coal consumption actually reached approximately record high last year thanks to growing demand for electricity, especially from China and India. Schumer said a grubby energy grid has a “huge knock-on effect” on other indicators of progress, such as the decarbonization of buildings and transportation.
To get on the right track, the world needs to escalate its pace of phasing out coal tenfold, Schumer said. She added that this would mean closing more than 360 medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year and decommissioning all coal-fired power plants currently in global development.
“We simply won’t limit warming to 1.5 degrees if coal consumption continues to break records,” Schumer said.