New Report Finds Efforts to Slow Climate Change Are Working—Just Not Fast Enough

In the 10 Years since the signing of the Paris Agreement, the backbone of international climate action, humanity has made impressive progress. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and more reliable, while electric vehicles are getting better every year.

However, by virtually every key indicator used to measure progress, we are still behind what we need to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to a report released Wednesday by a coalition of climate groups — and we are running out of time to right the ship.

“All systems are flashing red,” Clea Shumer, a researcher at the World Resources Institute, one of the organizations involved in the report, said last week on a call with reporters. “There is no doubt that we are largely doing the right things; we are simply not moving fast enough. »

The Paris Agreement aims to prevent global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. To measure progress toward this goal, the report examines emissions from 45 different sectors of the global economy and environment, measuring everything from the electrification of buildings to the use of coal in the electricity sector to global meat consumption.

Unfortunately, none of the indicators measured by the report are where they should be to keep the world on track to meet the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. Six of the 45 indicators are “off track” – progress is being made, but not fast enough – while almost 30 are “far off track”, meaning progress is far too slow. Meanwhile, five of them are going in the “wrong direction,” meaning the situation is neither getting better nor worse, and in need of an urgent turnaround. (There is not enough data, according to the report, to measure the remaining five indicators, which include peatland degradation and restoration, food waste, and the share of new carbon-free buildings.)

One of the most consistently derailed metrics, experts say, has been the global effort to phase out coal, one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Although coal’s share of global electricity generation declined slightly in 2024, total coal consumption actually reached a record high last year thanks to growing demand for electricity, particularly from China and India. A dirty power grid, Shumer said, has “huge implications” for other indicators of progress such as the decarbonization of buildings and transportation.

To be on track, the world needs to increase its pace of phasing out coal tenfold, Shumer said. This, she continued, would involve the closure of more than 360 medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year and the cancellation of all coal-fired power plants currently under development globally.

“We simply won’t limit warming to 1.5 degrees if coal use continues to break records,” Shumer said.