CB BureauTowards the end of last year, another sobering report by the UN was released which found that despite the many warnings by scientists, climate activists and organisations, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rising. The Emissions Gap Report, produced by the United Nations Environment Program, was bleak in its assessment of the efforts to cut emissions by countries and corporations. The full report can be read here.
The report states that temperatures have already increased by 1.1 °C, which has had devastating effects on millions of people and life on this planet. Apparently the world is almost on the brink of missing the opportunity to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, the temperature at which the consequences are bad enough but avoids the worst scenarios. For instance, sea-level rise will be 100 centimetres higher at 2 °C than at 1.5 °C. Ominously, relying on the climate commitments of the Paris Agreement, temperatures are projected to rise by 3.2 °C by this century which will be catastrophic for the planet.
Right now, the required emissions reductions are so massive and the time left to achieve that so little that it is increasingly becoming an impossible task. A s per the report, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C, emissions must drop rapidly to 25 gigatons by 2030 according to scientists, which is a reduction of 7.6 per cent every year. However, based on current commitments, emissions will reach 56 Gt CO2e by 2030, over twice of what they should be.
The report is blunt in its assessment that governments are not doing enough to meet the minimum targets necessary to thwart the worst effects of climate change. While 71 countries and 11 regions, accounting for about 15 per cent of global GHG emissions, have long-term goals to achieve net-zero emissions, countries representing the remaining 85 per cent are yet to make similar commitments . The G20 (a group of 19 countries, plus the EU) account for 78 per cent of all emissions but only five have pledged a long-term zero emissions target.
This year’s UN climate change conference in Glasgow will be when countries are expected to assess the future course of actions and significantly step up their climate commitments. The report states that to avert a full crisis, full decarbonisation of the energy sector is imperative.
In a statement, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said: ‘For 10 years, the Emissions Gap Report has been sounding the alarm – and for 10 years, the world has only increased its emissions. There has never been a more important time to listen to the science. Failure to heed these warnings and take drastic action to reverse emissions means we will continue to witness deadly and catastrophic heat waves, storms and pollution.’