UN projections say world is losing ground in fight to curb climate change, faulting US a bit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Losing more ground in the fight against climate change, humanity is heading for a hotter world than experts projected last year — and the United States is a big reason for that, a new United Nations report says. If all the countries do what they promise to reduce heat-trapping emissions, Earth will likely still warm another 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above current temperatures, according to Wednesday’s update of climate calculations by the United Nations Environment Programme. That’s about two-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit (0.1 degrees Celsius) more than last year’s projections by the same science team.

“This is a worse outcome than expected last year, as a result of the formal withdrawal of the United States of America from the Paris Agreement and revised estimates of historical emissions,” the report said. The report also blames the United States for increased emissions last year, saying all the other top 20 major economies reduced their carbon pollution or at least slowed the growth in how much carbon dioxide was spewed from the burning of coal, oil and gas. The 124 countries that increased emissions — not counting the 63 that decreased like most European nations — added 189 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2025, and 70% of that increase came from the U.S., according to the report.

The United States is going “hell-for-leather trying to block renewables while actively promoting and subsidizing dirty coal — and its diplomacy is trying to make other countries also pull back on action. It is looking at the fire, denying there is a fire, and then pouring more petrol on it,” said Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics that measures countries’ climate fighting plans. report but like several other outside scientists said it was scientifically sound.

Shooting far past Paris climate goal The new calculations say that if countries do all they promise in the climate fighting plans they submitted to the United Nations, by 2100 the globe will be 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than pre-industrial times.