By David Stanway&nbsp;and&nbsp;Riham Alkousaa
(Reuters) -The&nbsp;world&nbsp;is&nbsp;not&nbsp;on&nbsp;target&nbsp;to&nbsp;curb&nbsp;global&nbsp;warming&nbsp;and&nbsp;more&nbsp;action&nbsp;is&nbsp;needed&nbsp;on&nbsp;all&nbsp;fronts, the&nbsp;United&nbsp;Nations&nbsp;warned&nbsp;on&nbsp;Friday, in the&nbsp;run-up&nbsp;to&nbsp;crucial&nbsp;international&nbsp;talks&nbsp;aimed&nbsp;at&nbsp;stemming&nbsp;the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis.
The&nbsp;Global&nbsp;Stocktake report, the latest warning from the U.N. about environmental perils, will form the basis of the COP28&nbsp;talks&nbsp;in Dubai at the end of the year&nbsp;and&nbsp;follows months of wildfires&nbsp;and&nbsp;soaring temperatures.
The report, culminating a two-year evaluation of the 2015 Paris&nbsp;climate&nbsp;agreement goals, distils thousands of submissions from experts, governments&nbsp;and&nbsp;campaigners&nbsp;and&nbsp;will lay the groundwork for the&nbsp;global&nbsp;stock-take discussion at COP28.
"The Paris Agreement has driven near-universal&nbsp;climate&nbsp;action&nbsp;by setting goals&nbsp;and&nbsp;sending signals to the&nbsp;world&nbsp;regarding the urgency of responding to the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis," it said. "While&nbsp;action&nbsp;is proceeding, much&nbsp;more&nbsp;is&nbsp;needed&nbsp;now on&nbsp;all&nbsp;fronts."
Nearly 200 countries agreed in 2015 in Paris to limit&nbsp;warming&nbsp;to no&nbsp;more&nbsp;than 2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels,&nbsp;and&nbsp;to strive to keep the increase to 1.5 C.
While each country is responsible for deciding its own&nbsp;climate&nbsp;actions, they also agreed to submit to a progress report by 2023 to see what&nbsp;more&nbsp;should be done.
The U.N. said existing national pledges to cut emissions were insufficient to keep temperatures within the 1.5 C threshold.&nbsp;More&nbsp;than 20 gigatonnes of further CO2 reductions were&nbsp;needed&nbsp;this decade -&nbsp;and&nbsp;global&nbsp;net zero by 2050 - in order to meet the goals, the U.N. assessment said.
In&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;some of the&nbsp;world's most&nbsp;climate&nbsp;vulnerable countries said the report should spur&nbsp;action&nbsp;from&nbsp;global&nbsp;leaders.
"With leaders gathering this month for the&nbsp;United&nbsp;Nations&nbsp;Secretary General&rsquo;s&nbsp;Climate&nbsp;Ambition Summit ahead of COP28, the findings&nbsp;and&nbsp;recommendations of this Report need to be a wake-up&nbsp;call&nbsp;and&nbsp;a trigger for cogent commitments," said Pa'olelei Luteru, chair of the Association of Small&nbsp;Island&nbsp;States.
'BOLD TO-DO LIST'
The report urged countries to cut the use of "unabated" coal power by 67-92% by 2030 versus 2019 levels&nbsp;and&nbsp;to virtually eliminate it as a source of electricity by 2050.
Low&nbsp;and&nbsp;zero-carbon electricity should account for as much as 99% of the&nbsp;global&nbsp;total by mid-century, while technological challenges holding back carbon capture must be resolved.
The report also called for funding to be unlocked to support low-carbon development,&nbsp;noting that billions of dollars were still being invested in fossil fuels.
"It serves&nbsp;up&nbsp;a bold to-do list for governments to limit&nbsp;warming&nbsp;to 1.5C&nbsp;and&nbsp;protect people everywhere from&nbsp;climate&nbsp;devastation," said Tom Evans, policy advisor on&nbsp;climate&nbsp;diplomacy at British&nbsp;climate&nbsp;think tank E3G.
Commitment is&nbsp;needed&nbsp;to phase out fossil fuels, set 2030&nbsp;targets for renewable energy expansion, ensure the financial system funds&nbsp;climate&nbsp;action,&nbsp;and&nbsp;raise funds for adaptation&nbsp;and&nbsp;damage, he said.
"Anything less will fall&nbsp;short on the necessary steps laid out in this report."
Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the Nov. 30-Dec. 12 summit in the&nbsp;United&nbsp;Arab Emirates (UAE), told Reuters the stock take gave good direction,&nbsp;and&nbsp;urged states&nbsp;and&nbsp;private sector leaders to come to COP28 with real commitments.
Also on&nbsp;Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told G20 bloc leaders that they have the power to reset a&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis&nbsp;that is "spinning out of control".
A Brazilian&nbsp;climate&nbsp;official told Reuters: "What we need is an unprecedented mobilization both in terms of scale&nbsp;and&nbsp;speed of&nbsp;all&nbsp;of humanity&rsquo;s financial, technology,&nbsp;and&nbsp;capacity building resources to be channeled towards sustainable development."
(Reporting by David Stanway in Singapore&nbsp;and&nbsp;Riham Alkousaa in Berlin; additional reporting by Jake Spring in Sao Paulo&nbsp;and&nbsp;Valerie Volcovici in Washington; editing by&nbsp;Andrew Cawthorne&nbsp;and&nbsp;Jason Neely)

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U.N. says more needed 'on all fronts' to meet climate goals