WASHINGTON: The world is "not on a good track" to meet a global goal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and needs to step up efforts to move away from fossil fuels this decade, John Kerry, the US special envoy on climate change, said on Monday.

"We're in trouble. I hope everyone understands that," Kerry told an event called Building Momentum to UN COP27 hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce and officials from Egypt, the host of the next UN climate summit.

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Kerry told the event that he is concerned about the recent uptick in the use of coal globally and about plans to build new coal plants without carbon capture technology.