Between 1 January 2024 and 31 August 2026, 127 new nationally determined contributions (NDCs), representing 154 Parties to the Paris Agreement, were recorded in the NDC registry. Together, they cover about 71 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions (without land use, land-use change and forestry) in 2019. This synthesis report provides an updated picture, on the basis of those NDCs, of how countries are progressing in turning their commitments under the Paris Agreement into climate action and the major challenges that remain in this context, identifying both accelerators and barriers and gaps in relation to implementation. While the report shows that implementation of the Paris Agreement is delivering significant progress towards its goals, particularly in terms of mainstreaming climate in policymaking, it also shows that collective progress in lowering projected emissions remains substantially off track from the reductions required by the science to keep the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 °C this century within reach and to keep temporary overshoot as short and shallow as possible. However, near-term NDC targets are being connected to longer-term decarbonization goals and development pathways, providing a clearer bridge between action this decade and the transformation needed by mid-century. The new NDCs show how climate action is being broadened, including through more comprehensive approaches, and more integrated into and deeply embedded across economies and societies. Further, they show improvement, compared with the previous NDCs, in the quality and depth of information provided, as well as broader thematic coverage (encompassing mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity-building, loss and damage, response measures and just transition). Finally, there is clear recognition that climate change is not only a mitigation challenge. As temperature continues to rise, adaptation and resilience-building are becoming key elements of national climate plans, alongside efforts to avert, minimize and address loss and damage. Energy transition is another common theme, with electrification and the deployment of enabling technologies playing an increasingly important role in reducing emissions while strengthening energy security.