SATYAPAL MENON
19TH OCTOBER, 2025
Since a decade global heads states have frequently put their heads together to hammer out a a universal solution against global warming. Climate change targets – reduction by 1.5°C to 2°C – and deadline – i.e., 2030 – was set. But, implementation was out of sync with the datelines. Consequently, over the years and till date, Nature has gone awry , unleashing its fury, in the form of glacier melts, melts floods, landslides and desertification. The reasons?
Are all these global summits related to climate change proving to be a fiasco with commitments being confined to rhetoric and platitudes? Except for bits and pieces implementation of the action plans to restrict climate change, genuine endeavours to achieve the target of restricting or minimising climate change between 1.5°C to 2°C is yet to materialize. The meetings of the global for a have been reduced to monotonous and perfunctory routine with the participating leaders feigning concern about global warming and waxing eloquent on commitments to curb Greenhouse Gas emissions. This does not mean that changes can be made to happen overnight or a within a short period of time. The question is: whether any concrete and effective initiatives are in place to achieve the targeted climate objectives. Going by the shoddy and rather lackadaisical approach to implementation of the temperature control strategies, it is evident that governments do not consider climate change as a priority a serious issue to deserve a focused approach. Current economic and energy trends suggest that emissions will be at least as high in 2024 as in 2025. Global GDP is expected to grow at 3.2% in 2025, and if the global economy decarbonized at the same rate as in the last five years years, that would still lead to an increase in global emissions.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap assessment of “where we are likely to be and where we need to be” elucidates the current and estimated future greenhouse gas emissions based on latest scientific data. According to the UNEP the emissions are like to cause a scorching 3°C during the next few years. The gap between emission levels under full implementation of conditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and levels consistent with least-cost pathways to the 2°C target is 13 Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (GtCO2e)
Current NDCs are estimated to lower global emissions in 2030 by up to 6 GtCO2e compared to a continuation of current policies. This level of ambition needs to be roughly tripled to align with the 2°C limit and must be increased around fivefold to align with the 1.5°C limit. Implementing unconditional NDCs, and assuming that climate action continues consistently throughout the twenty-first century, would lead to a global mean temperature rise between 2.9°C and 3.4°C by 2100 relative to pre-industrial levels. If NDC ambitions are not increased immediately and backed up by action, exceeding the 1.5°C goal can no longer be avoided. If the emissions gap is not closed by 2030, it is very plausible that the goal of a well-below 2°C temperature increase is also out of reach. In June 2025, global CO2 concentration was 423..83 parts per million (ppm), 2.2 ppm higher than that in June 2024 at 423.22 ppm.
According to a report by a consortium of climate science organisations, there is a glaring – and growing – gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality. The report prepared for the United Nations Climate Action Summit highlights the urgency of fundamental socio-economic transformation in key sectors such as land use and energy in order to avert dangerous global temperature increase with potentially irreversible impacts. “There is urgent need for the development of concrete actions that halt global warming and the worst effects of climate change.”
The Report provides a unified assessment of the state of our Earth system under the increasing influence of anthropogenic climate change, of humanity’s response thus far and of the far-reaching changes that science projects for our global climate in the future. The scientific data and findings presented in the report represent the very latest authoritative information on these topics,” said the Science Advisory Group to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit. Widespread and long-lasting heat waves, record-breaking fires and other devastating events such as tropical cyclones, floods and drought have had major impacts on socio-economic development and the environment. Arctic summer sea-ice extent has declined considerably . Levels of the main long-lived greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4)) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have reached new highs, according to the report. The last time Earth’s atmosphere contained 400 parts per million CO2 was about 3-5 million years ago, when global mean surface temperatures were 2-3°C warmer than today, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica melted, parts of East Antarctica ice had retreated, all causing global see level rise of 10-20m compared with today.
A major impediment to achievement of climate change objective is the lack of stringent legislation or laws to ensure compliance by the industries to install machinery or have systems in place to prevent GHG emissions. Though rules have mandated disclosure of emission related norms by listed companies, the response, going by the reports, has been insignificant. In India, unsurprisingly, there is no clarity on compliance or disclosures with SEBI. Is it an eloquent expression of reluctance to disclose information related to mandated emission-related infrastructure?
The author, Satyapal Menon is the Associate Editor of Newscript Energy World.