More than 50 countries drop out of the very high human development group under a new index factoring in fossil fuel use and material footprint. It features in the latest edition of the Human Development Report, an urgent call for accounting for humanity’s immense pressures on the planet, and taking bold actions to reduce them.

The world must cut fossil fuel production by 6 per cent per year to avoid the worst of global warming. Instead, countries are projecting an average annual increase of 2 per cent. Those are among the sobering findings of the latest Production Gap Report. The report urges making COVID-19 recovery a turning point, where countries should steer investments into changing course to avoid “locking in” dependence on polluting coal, oil and gas.

Just a decade ago, the world’s largest public company was an oil giant. Now a renewable energy company has surpassed it in value. Investors are piling into clean energy and other green companies because they know climate action is increasingly profitable and key to a sustainable future. For a take by the head of the UN Global Compact, see Why it is smart to invest in the planet.