A new report claims that no sector of the global economy is currently on track to meet the targets required to limit warming to 1.5°C.
The State of Climate Action 2025 report was published by the Systems Change Lab, a joint effort of the Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Analytics, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Climate High-Level Champions, and the World Resources Institute.
It warned that the pace and scale of global climate action remain ‘alarmingly inadequate’, with none of the 45 tracked indicators currently on course to meet their 2030 targets.
‘No time for hesitation’
“All systems are flashing red,” commented Clea Schumer, research associate at WRI and co-lead author of the report. “A decade of delay has dangerously narrowed the path to 1.5°C. Steady progress isn’t enough anymore – every year we fail to speed up, the gap widens and the climb gets steeper. There’s simply no time left for hesitation or half measures.”
Of the 45 indicators assessed in the report, six are described as ‘off-track’, i.e. moving in the right direction but too slowly, while 29 are ‘well off-track’, moving in the right direction but far too slowly.
Five indicators are heading in the wrong direction, requiring an ‘urgent course correction’, the WRI noted, while a further five lack sufficient data to assess progress.
In the previous edition of the State of Climate Action report, which was published in 2023, one indicator – electric vehicles – was considered ‘on track’, however due to slowing growth in major markets such as Europe and the United States, this has been downgraded to ‘off track’.
At the same time, positive progress has been seen in climate finance, which rose from $870 billion in 2022 to $1.3 trillion in 2023, warranting an upgrade from ‘well off-track’ to ‘off track’.
Worryingly, however, there has been little movement on one of the most consequential indicators in the report – fossil fuels – where public financing has increased by an average of $75 billion per year since 2014, reaching more than $1.5 trillion in 2023. Deforestation, another key indicator, is also rising.
“We’re not just falling behind – we’re effectively flunking the most critical subjects,” added Sophie Boehm, senior research associate at World Resources Institute and co-lead author of the report.
“As this global report card shows, we have barely moved the needle on phasing out coal or halting deforestation, while public finance still props up fossil fuels. These actions aren’t optional; they’re the bare minimum needed to combat the climate crisis and protect humanity.”
Urgent actions
The report suggests a number of urgent measures to keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal within reach, including the phasing out of coal ‘more than ten times faster’, reducing deforestation nine times faster, and expanding rapid transit systems five times faster – equivalent to building at least 1,400 km (870 miles) of light rail, metro, and bus lanes annually.
Beef and lamb consumption in high-consuming regions need to decrease five times more rapidly, while scaling of technological carbon removal must increase more than tenfold. In addition, climate finance will need to be expanded by nearly $1 trillion each year. Read more here.
