Greenhouse gas pledges not enough, claims report

Pledges being made by countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions are unlikely to be enough to avoid dangerous climate change, a report has warned.

Countries are submitting the pledges for reductions in emissions — known as “intended nationally determined contributions” — ahead of UN climate talks in Paris at the end of the year which aim to secure a new global deal to tackle climate change.

However, analysis of the intended level of emissions in 2030 by some of the world’s largest emitters and assumptions about what other countries might do suggests the pledges will together fail to limit temperature rises to no more than 2C — the threshold beyond which the worst impacts of climate change are likely to be felt.