Two weeks before the start of COP29, three new UN reports show how far the world is from its climate targets and that a key trend has not yet been broken: Instead of decreasing, greenhouse gas emissions reached a new high in 2023 as well; therefore, the concentration of CO2, methane and other drivers of global warming continued to increase in the atmosphere. And instead of a drastic reduction, the current national climate plans of the UN member states (NDCs) only point to a slight decrease in emissions.