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A U.N. Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday will test governments' willingness to make a "quantum leap" to combat climate change after a slew of studies showing they are far off track.

Pushing for more action by world leaders meeting in New York, tens of thousands of climate protesters marched at the weekend with banners such as "No more fossil-fuelled greed" and "Declare a climate emergency".

So far, there is a glaring mismatch between promises and action on climate change. The United Nations has warned that "much more needs to be done" to get on track to limit rising global temperatures to goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Governments have, for instance, all embraced scientific findings that global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by an unprecedented 43% this decade from 2019 levels. And yet carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2022.

Major economies - including top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States - have shown little sign they will sharply step up existing climate goals this year.

"I would of course be very happy if several of the G20 (Group of 20) countries will be able to come to the summit and announce a quantum leap in their efforts to reduce emissions," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. Read our correspondent David Sherfinski’s preview of the main issues for the summit.

World leaders at U.N. headquarters in New York are also reviewing the stalled Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with Guterres urging "renewed impetus".

Climate action is number 13 of the 17 SDGs, which make up a blueprint for a better planet by 2030, led by no more poverty (SDG1) and zero hunger (SDG2).

Our correspondent David writes that just 15% of the SDGs are on target, with most held back by the COVID pandemic, economic headwinds and the fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

There has, of course, been a huge green shift in the world economy since the Paris Agreement, with plunges in the cost of wind and solar energy and other renewables.

Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate chief who was an architect of the Paris accord, says there is a "front page paradox" - climate change is in the headlines but action lags.

"The big picture of what we need to do is not rocket science," she writes for Context, pointing to the solutions: turbo-charge investments in clean energies, impose a moratorium on all new oil and gas exploration, and regenerate nature. 

In Bangladesh, meanwhile, Ripon Mondal worries about his father’s distress after a drought ruined the family's watermelon crop - part of an underestimated crisis of mental health linked to climate change.

One 2019 study found that exposure to higher temperatures and humidity, along with worsening floods, raised the likelihood of Bangladeshis experiencing both anxiety and depression.

Yet the country of 170 million people has just a few hundred mental health practitioners, meaning many suffer in silence, our correspondent Tahmid Zami reports. SDG3 is "good health and wellbeing".

"Disasters hit minds too, and in multiple ways," said Tawhida Shiropa, founder of the Moner Bondhu mental healthcare platform.

In the United States, delivery drivers for Amazon are opening a new front in the fight for labour rights: protection from sweltering heat.

From McDonalds and Burger King to UPS, Amazon and the Postal Service – U.S. workers have staged protests over dangerous working conditions brought on by extreme heat.

Worldwide, the period June-August was the hottest on record. Amazon says it ensures air conditioning, plenty of rest time and other measures to protect workers' health.

Watch our video report by Avi Asher-Schapiro, Ashley Jiang and Jacob Templin. SDG8 seeks "decent work and economic growth".

"It's like opening an oven in your face," said driver Dorian Arnold, who said the inside of his delivery van could easily reach 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit (38-43C).

Enjoy the week and please get in touch with ideas!

Alister