According to the United Nations, states must set new goals and make further cuts to prevent temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The issue
A new United Nations assessment indicates that global climate plans remain unsatisfactory to restrict rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
With the world already experiencing climate-related calamities like rising temperatures, floods, and temperatures 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the UN’s climate experts said on Wednesday that the world was still failing to move quickly enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the United Nations, pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will result in global warming of 2.5 degrees Celsius, a level that would doom the planet to catastrophic climate collapse.
Only a few countries have significantly increased their commitments in the last year, despite promising to do so at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November. Deeper reductions are required to keep temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, avoiding the worst effects of extreme weather.
“This does not go far enough, quick enough,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is nowhere close to the magnitude of reductions needed to keep us on pace for 1.5 degrees Celsius. Member states must establish new objectives now and execute them over the next eight years.”
He stated that stronger action from both the business and public sectors was essential. “It’s about taking concrete actions, not just some words on paper,” he explained.
Since the climate responds to combined emissions, even if long-term goals are met, the world could still exceed the 1.5C temperature limit, hence the NDCs, which focus on emissions for this decade, are so vital.
As per the UN climate experts, emissions must decline by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels in order to reach the Paris agreement’s much more aspirational target.
Data as per reports
According to the UN’s latest assessment, current commitments from countries around the world will raise emissions by 10.6% by 2030, compared to 2010. This was a small advancement over the previous year’s analysis.
When governments convened in Glasgow last year for an initial round of climate talks, they pledged to accelerate their climate promises in order to reduce carbon pollution this decade and increase financial flows to vulnerable developing nations.
However, just 24 of 193 countries had revised their plans at the time of the report, which Mr. Stiell described as “disappointing.”
A separate UN Climate Change report, also released today, looked at countries’ intentions to move to net-zero emissions by or around mid-century. According to the analysis, if all long-term initiatives are fully implemented on time, these countries’ greenhouse gas emissions may be around 68% lower in 2050 than in 2019.
Current protracted policies (representing 62 Paris Agreement Parties) account for 83% of the global GDP, 47% of the global population in 2019, and approximately 69% of total energy consumption in 2019. This is a significant indication that the world is moving closer to net-zero emissions.
With the consequences weighing hardest on the countries least responsible for fossil fuel emissions, calls for moneyed emitters to pay “loss and damage” to vulnerable nations have become bolder.
IPCC and COP
In a major study on climate impacts and vulnerabilities released this year, the UN’s 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that time was running out to ensure a “livable future” for all.
With the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) just around the corner, Stiell urged nations to reevaluate and reinforce their climate policies in order to bridge the gap between where emissions are now and where science suggests they should be this decade.
“COP 27 will serve as a platform for world leaders to strengthen the focus on the current state of affairs and shift from words to actions.”, and get moving on the huge transformation that must happen across all sectors of society to stronghold the climate emergency,” he said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 President-Designate Sameh Shoukry stated that the “COP27 will be the world’s defining moment on climate action,” The UN Climate Change report, and the IPCC report, work as cautions for all of us. “We are in a race against time.”
DO FOLLOW: Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
READ MORE
