Guide 03 · Solutions
What's being done, and is it enough?
Short answer: the tools exist and are getting cheaper fast. Solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles are scaling at record speed, and dozens of countries have cut emissions while growing their economies. But global emissions have not yet started to fall, and holding warming to 1.5°C now needs cuts far deeper and faster than today's plans.
The goal
The Paris Agreement in one paragraph
In 2015 almost every country agreed to hold warming "well below 2°C" and to "pursue efforts" to limit it to 1.5°C. Warming stops roughly when the world's net CO₂ emissions reach zero, so the peak temperature depends on how much more we emit before then.
The gap
Where emissions are, and where they need to go
Fossil CO₂ emissions since 1950 against an illustrative 1.5°C pathway: roughly halving CO₂ by 2030 and reaching net zero around 2050. In 2024 emissions were +4.1% compared with 2019.
- 1.5°C pathway (CO₂ −48% by 2030, net zero ~2050)
- Actual emissions
Source: Global Carbon Budget via Our World in Data; pathway after IPCC AR6 WG3 ·
Clean energy
The power switch is happening
Electricity is the easiest place to cut emissions, and the backbone for electric cars and heat pumps. Here is how the world generated its power in 2025.
- Coal 33.0%
- Gas 21.8%
- Oil 2.6%
- Nuclear 8.8%
- Hydro 14.0%
- Wind 8.5%
- Solar 8.7%
- Bioenergy & other 2.5%
Source: Ember via Our World in Data ·
Renewable share of world electricity
33.8%Who's cutting
Proof it can be done
Many countries now emit far less CO₂ than in 2005, by closing coal plants, building renewables and using energy more efficiently. And these figures are for emissions produced at home; most have also cut emissions including the goods they import.
Biggest cuts since 2005
change in CO₂, larger emittersHighest renewable electricity
among countries emitting 20 Mt+Source: Global Carbon Budget and Ember via Our World in Data · countries emitting 50 Mt+ in 2005; 2005 avoids counting the 1990s post-Soviet industrial collapse as climate progress ·
What you can do
The choices that matter most
Individual actions are not the whole answer, but they add up and they shift what is normal. These have the biggest effect for most people in richer countries.
Fly less
One long-haul return flight can add more than a tonne of CO₂ per passenger, a big share of a sustainable yearly budget.
High impactGo car-free or electric
Walk, cycle and use public transport where you can; when you need a car, an electric one cuts lifetime emissions by more than half on most grids.
High impactHeat your home cleanly
Insulate, draught-proof, and replace a gas or oil boiler with a heat pump, which delivers three or more units of heat per unit of electricity.
High impactEat more plants
Beef and lamb have by far the largest footprint per gram of protein. Shifting meals towards plants cuts food emissions substantially.
Medium–high impactChoose clean power
Switch to a renewable electricity tariff, or add rooftop solar. Then electrify everything else you can.
Medium impactSpeak up and vote
Talk about it, back climate policy, and ask employers, pension funds and banks what they are doing. System change multiplies personal change.
MultiplierRanking draws on IPCC AR6 WG3 chapter 5 (demand-side mitigation) and Wynes & Nicholas, Environmental Research Letters (2017).
Questions people ask
Is it too late to stop climate change?
No. Every tenth of a degree avoided reduces the damage. Warming stops more or less when net CO₂ emissions reach zero, so how hot it gets is still up to us. Limiting it to 1.5°C is now very hard, but 1.7°C or 2°C is very different from 3°C.
What do we need to do to limit warming to 1.5°C?
Cut global greenhouse gas emissions about 43% below 2019 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero CO₂ around the early 2050s (IPCC AR6). That means replacing coal, oil and gas with clean electricity, electrifying transport and heating, using energy efficiently, stopping deforestation and cutting methane.
What is the carbon budget?
The total CO₂ we can still emit for a 50% chance of staying under 1.5°C. Scientists estimated about 130 billion tonnes from the start of 2025, roughly three years of current emissions (Indicators of Global Climate Change, 2025). For a 50% chance of staying under 2°C it is still more than 1,000 billion tonnes.
What is the most effective thing I can do?
The biggest personal levers are usually: fly less, go car-free or electric, switch home heating to a heat pump and insulate, eat more plant-based meals, and choose clean electricity. Talking about it and voting for climate policy multiplies the effect.
Are renewables actually growing?
Yes, faster than any energy source in history. Solar and wind together now produce more of the world's electricity than ever, and clean sources made up most new power capacity built worldwide last year. See the live numbers on this page.