Climate pledges can limit temperature rise to 1.8°C – IEA

Agency updates mid-October analysis to reflect slew of new pledges

New pledges since mid-October have raised global climate ambitions to a level potentially capable of holding the rise in temperatures to 1.8°C by the end of the century, IEA director general Fatih Birol said during this week’s Cop26 climate talks. The IEA’s mid-October forecast was for 2.1°C of warming by the end of the century, provided all announced pledges were implemented in full and on time. The UN stocktake before the conference said pledges would lead to 2.7°C of warming. The discrepancy could be due to a number of factors. The UN stocktake includes only actions outlined in Nationally Determined Contributions by countries signed up to the Paris Agreement. The IEA figures also include