Systems Change Lab has published a report assessing recent progress in accelerating climate action across sectors that collectively account for around 85% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in scaling up carbon removal technologies and climate finance. The report finds that transformation of the world’s highest-emitting sectors – power, buildings, industry, transport, forests and land, and food and agriculture – is not happening anywhere near fast enough to meet the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Titled, ‘State of Climate Action 2022,’ the report assesses progress across 40 indicators of systems change and finds that none are on track to reach their 2030 targets. Change is heading in the right direction at a promising but insufficient pace for six indicators, and in the right direction but well below the required speed for 21. Change is heading in the wrong direction, and a U-turn is needed, for another five, which include the share of unabated fossil gas in electricity generation, the share of kilometers traveled by passenger cars, and agricultural production GHG emissions. Data are insufficient to evaluate the remaining eight indicators.

According to the assessment, limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5˚C requires cutting GHG emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century. This calls for an enormous acceleration of effort as even when fully implemented, countries’ current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are projected to lead to around 2.4-2.8°C warming.

To close this gap, the report recommends supportive measures that “can advance action at the speed and scale required” in the following areas:

• Transitioning to zero-carbon power;
• Decarbonizing buildings;
• Reducing industrial emissions;
• Shifting to more sustainable modes of transport;
• Protecting and restoring ecosystems;
• Shifting to more sustainable food systems;
• Scaling up carbon removal technologies; and
• Scaling up climate finance and aligning financial systems with 1.5˚C.

“We are seeing important advances in the fight against climate change – but we are still not winning in any sector,” said Ani Dasgupta, World Resources Institute’s (WRI) President and CEO. “The State of Climate Action 2022 is an urgent wakeup call for decision-makers to commit to real transformation across every aspect of our economy,” he emphasized.

Published under Systems Change Lab on 26 October 2022, the report is a joint effort between Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Action Tracker, Climate Analytics, ClimateWorks Foundation, NewClimate Institute, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, and WRI. The Center for Global Commons, the Global Commons Alliance, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Just Climate provided support for the publication.

The report’s conclusions echo the findings of several other publications released ahead of the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference. These include the Emissions Gap Report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UNFCCC’s NDC synthesis report, and WRI’s 2022 analysis of the state of NDCs. [Publication: State of Climate Action 2022] [Publication Landing Page] [Climate Action Tracker Press Release] [Climate Action Tracker Blog]