UN report warns the world has already crossed into “uncharted territory”.
Global temperatures could rise by 2.4°C to 3.9°C above pre-industrial levels.
One million species face decline, with biodiversity loss accelerating.
Asia-Pacific region likely to miss most climate and development targets.
Long-term economic gains possible through a rapid shift away from fossil fuels.
The world has already entered “uncharted territory” as the climate and environmental crisis deepens, and future global warming is likely to exceed earlier United Nations projections, according to a new UN report published last December 9, 2025.
The warning comes amid a series of scientific assessments released ahead of, and during, the recently concluded 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Belém, Brazil, many of which also projected such a critical future.
Based on current country submissions on nationally determined contributions to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the report projects that global mean temperatures could rise by between 2.4 degrees Celsius (°C) and 3.9°C above pre-industrial levels later this century.
This would fall far short of the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, adopted nearly a decade ago, which aims to keep warming well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) — a benchmark period before large-scale human-driven emissions began.
The report, The Global Environment Outlook, Seventh Edition: A Future We Choose, was prepared by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with technical support from nearly 20 global organisations. It also warns that one million species — about one-eighth of all documented species — are now in decline, with their genetic diversity being significantly eroded.
Asia has been identified as one of the most highly vulnerable regions, according to the report.
“The Global Environment Outlook, Seventh Edition: A Future We Choose, the product of 287 multi-disciplinary scientists from 82 countries, tells us what we stand to gain by choosing the path that tackles the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and pollution and waste as one,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, while launching the report.
“By investing in a global transformation of systems from energy to food, we can avoid nine million premature deaths by 2050 — many of them from decreased air pollution,” Andersen said. “We can lift 200 million people out of undernourishment and 150 million people out of extreme poverty by 2050. We can give 300 million more people access to safely managed water sources by 2050.”
She added that while such changes would involve substantial upfront costs, the long-term returns could amount to around $20 trillion a year by 2070, followed by sustained economic growth thereafter.
By contrast, remaining on the current development path would carry severe consequences. “If we choose to stay on the current path — powering our economies with fossil fuels, extracting virgin resources, destroying nature, polluting the environment — the damages would stack up,” she said. “Climate change would cut four per cent off annual global GDP by 2050, claim many lives and increase forced migration.”
“Despite global efforts and calls for action, our planet has already entered into uncharted territory,” the report states, citing accelerating crises linked to climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and desertification, and pollution and waste.
These interconnected threats, driven largely by unsustainable systems of production and consumption, are undermining human wellbeing and reinforcing one another, the report says, and must be addressed together.
Among the major risks identified:
The rate of global warming may exceed the central estimates of previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections, increasing the likelihood of crossing irreversible climate tipping points within the next few decades.
Crossing such thresholds could trigger major shifts in ocean circulation, accelerated ice-sheet loss, widespread permafrost thaw, forest decline and the collapse of coral reef ecosystems.
One million of an estimated eight million species are threatened with extinction, some within decades, while many others are declining and losing genetic diversity.
Between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of global land was degraded in 2022. From 2015 to 2019, at least 100 million hectares of fertile land — an area roughly the size of Ethiopia or Colombia — were degraded each year.
Annual solid waste generation already exceeds two billion tonnes and is projected to rise to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050 if current trends continue.
Most internationally agreed environmental targets, including those under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and World Health Organization pollution standards, are unlikely to be met under existing policies.
“These environmental crises are causing substantial economic and social damage,” the report says, adding that they can no longer be viewed as purely environmental issues but must also be understood as economic, developmental, governance, security, social, moral and ethical challenges.
The report warns that the Asia-Pacific region, despite its bio-cultural and geographical diversity, faces mounting environmental pressures. It identified climate adaptation, resilience to extreme events, land-use change, land degradation, and rising waste and pollution as key priorities.
It notes that significant gaps remain in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and that countries in the region have achieved only 17 per cent progress across the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, slightly above the global average. At the current rate, the Asia-Pacific region will fail to achieve 90 per cent of the 118 SDG targets by 2030, the report warned.
Harjeet Singh, climate activist and founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, said the risks were particularly acute for India, given its high vulnerability to climate impacts alongside persistent pollution and land degradation.
“However, hope remains,” he said. “Achieving global goals requires unprecedented, whole-of-society transformations in our economic, energy, food and materials systems. India can lead this change by embracing innovative green policies, sustainable infrastructure and rapidly moving away from fossil fuels to leapfrog old technologies.”
Singh added that success would depend on a just and equitable transition that confronts vested interests and ensures strong governance to hold polluters to account.