Climate pledges still ‘nowhere near’: UN

International climate pledges remain far off track to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a UN report released yesterday, less than two weeks ahead of high-stakes negotiations to tackle global warming.

The combined climate pledges of more than 190 nations that signed up to the 2015 Paris climate deal put Earth on track to warm around 2.5C compared to pre-industrial levels by the century's end, the UN said.

With the planet already battered by climate-enhanced heatwaves, storms and floods after just 1.2C of warming, experts say the world is still failing to act with sufficient urgency to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world," said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.

"To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years."

The UN's climate experts have said emissions -- compared to 2010 levels -- need to fall 45 percent by 2030 in order to meet the Paris deal's more ambitious goal.

In this latest report, the UN said that current commitments from governments around the world will in fact increase emissions by 10.6 percent by 2030.

Since Glasgow climate summit, only 24 countries, of 193, had updated their plans at the time of the report, which Stiell said was "disappointing".

The next climate summit will be held from November 6 to 18 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Nations are meeting in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and cascading global crises of hunger, energy prices and living costs, exacerbated by extreme weather.

Scientists have warned that any rise above 1.5C risks the collapse of ecosystems and the triggering of irreversible shifts in the climate system.

In a landmark report this year on climate impacts and vulnerabilities, the UN's 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that time had nearly run out to ensure a "liveable future" for all.

That report was signed off by the same governments that will return to negotiations in Egypt.