COP29: Paris Agreement Goals On Climate Change 'In Great Peril', Warns UN World Meteorological Organization

As leaders gather in Azerbaijan for the COP29 conference, the pressure mounts to make substantial progress toward reducing emissions and averting the worst impacts of climate change.

At the start of the COP29 climate talks in Baku, the United Nations sounded an urgent alarm, warning that the targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement are at serious risk. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlighted that 2024 is likely to be a record-breaking year for global temperatures, underscoring the urgent need for enhanced climate action. 

"The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril," warned the UN body as leaders convened for crucial climate discussions in Azerbaijan.

The WMO State of the Climate 2024 Update was released on the first day of the COP29 conference, issuing a "Red Alert" on the alarming pace of climate change over just one generation, fueled by record greenhouse gas concentrations. According to the report, the years 2015-2024 are set to be the warmest decade on record, with rapid acceleration in glacier ice loss, sea-level rise, and ocean heating, alongside extreme weather events wreaking havoc globally.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo clarified the implications of these findings: “As monthly and annual warming temporarily surpass 1.5°C, it is important to emphasize that this does not mean we have failed to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the long-term global temperature increase well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.”

From January to September 2024, the global mean surface air temperature was 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels (with a margin of uncertainty of ±0.13°C), driven in part by a warming El Niño event.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the consequences: “Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and shaking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit.”

What Is the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Agreement is a landmark international treaty aimed at addressing climate change, adopted by 196 countries at COP21 in Paris in December 2015, and entered into force in November 2016. It is legally binding and seeks to limit global warming by setting a target of keeping the increase in global average temperature "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels," with efforts to limit this increase to 1.5°C.

Achieving these goals requires broad economic and social changes rooted in the latest scientific insights. The agreement establishes a five-year cycle of increasing climate action commitments, or “ratcheting up,” through which countries submit progressively ambitious climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Since 2020, each country’s NDC has reflected higher ambitions compared to its previous submission, reinforcing the global commitment to combat climate change effectively.