Dear John,

Climate change is already wreaking havoc across the planet, bringing devastation to communities and ecosystems. In two weeks, world leaders have a pivotal opportunity to correct-course at the COP28 climate summit where governments will respond to the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement.  

To support this process, I am proud to unveil the State of Climate Action 2023 report, which offers the world’s most comprehensive roadmap of how to close the gap in climate action across sectors to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Published today under Systems Change Lab, this report is a joint effort of the Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Action Tracker (a project of Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute), ClimateWorks Foundation, the United Nations Climate Change High-Level Champions and World Resources Institute.
 

The State of Climate Action 2023 reveals that while meaningful gains have been made across some sectors, overall progress isn’t happening at anywhere near the pace and scale necessary to combat the climate crisis. Only one of the report’s 42 indicators — the share of electric vehicles in passenger car sales — is on track to reach its 2030 target, thanks in part to government policies that helped spur declines in cost, improvements in range and the expansion of charging infrastructure. 

Igniting rapid transformations across all sectors will require a tremendous acceleration in global climate action. For example, to get on track for 2030, the world needs to: 

• Reduce the annual rate of deforestation 4 times faster. 
• Increase the coverage of rapid transit 6 times faster. 
• Phase out coal in electricity generation 7 times faster. 
• Lower consumption of beef, lamb and goat in high-consuming regions 8 times faster. 
• Decarbonize cement production more than 10 times faster.  
• Raise the investment ratio of low-carbon to fossil fuel energy supply more than 10 times faster.

While we have much work to do, a handful of bright spots demonstrate rapid change is not only possible, but already taking off in some sectors and geographies. For example, over a span of five years, Uruguay, Denmark and Lithuania have all grown solar and wind at average annual rates higher than what’s needed globally between 2022 and 2030; sales of heat pumps rose 38% in Europe in the last year alone; and Indonesia restored more than 240,000 hectares of degraded peatlands in 2022.  

To learn more, I encourage you to join us for a high-level launch event on November 15 for a discussion on the current state of climate action with the report's authors and an inspiring line-up of climate leaders at 10:00 a.m. ET/4:00 p.m. CET. 
 

As COP28 approaches, the world must learn from both our successes and our failures in advancing climate action. The State of Climate Action 2023 offers a guide for how decision-makers can determine where to focus their time and resources to avoid increasingly dangerous and irreversible climate impacts.

Read our summary article for more insights from the new report. 

Warmly, 
Ani 

Ani Dasgupta 
President & CEO 
World Resources Institute