Global greenhouse-gas emissions were roughly flat from 2024 to 2025. Credit: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty

Despite a possible plateau in global greenhouse-gas emissions last year, average temperatures are set to hurtle past 2 °C of warming around mid-century barring a major acceleration in emissions cuts, finds the United Nations’ latest report on climate change.

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“The world can no longer avoid overshooting the 1.5 °C limit, and the consequences are already devastating,” said outgoing UN secretary-general António Guterres in a press briefing announcing the report — an annual accounting of progress towards tackling climate change published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on 21 October. Guterres pointed to extended heat waves, massive wildfires and deadly floods that have disrupted much of the world in 2026.…