The United Nations has warned that Countries need to pursue emission cuts aggressively, if the world has to meet the ambitious climate change goal. According to the UN ,countries’ latest climate plans will deliver just a tiny percentage of the emissions cuts needed to limit global heating to 1.5C, the United Nations said on Tuesday in a damning assessment ahead of the COP26 climate summit.
Just days before the Glasgow meeting, the UN’s Environment Programme said that national plans to reduce carbon pollution amounted to “weak promises, not yet delivered”.
In its annual Emissions Gap assessment, UNEP calculates the gulf between the emissions set to be released by countries and the level needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C — the most ambitious Paris Agreement goal.
55% reduction needed to keep to 1.5C of warming, UN Environment Programme said. (File)
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From Pollution to Solution Report shows:
— UN Environment Programme (@UNEP) October 21, 2021
⚠️There is a growing threat in all ecosystems from source to sea
🟢 While we have the know-how, we need the political will & urgent action by governments to tackle the mounting crisis#BeatPollution for #CleanSeashttps://t.co/bln93Iv8Bh
The summit’s organisers say they want countries to commit to keeping Earth on course for the 1.5C goal through redoubled pledges to decarbonise their economies.
But according to UNEP, even the most up-to-date and ambitious plans from around 120 countries puts the world on track to warm 2.7C.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday’s report showed that the world was “still on track for climate catastrophe”.
“As world leaders prepare for COP26, this report is another thundering wake-up call. How many do we need?”
Under the 2015 Paris deal, signatories are required to submit new emissions-cutting plans — known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs — every five years, each more ambitious than the last.
UNEP said that most recent commitments would shave 7.5 percent off previously predicted 2030 emissions levels.
To keep on a 1.5C trajectory, a 55-percent reduction is needed, it said.
A 30-percent cut is needed for 2C of warming, a threshold the Paris deal commits nations to keep temperatures “well below”.
“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.
“Eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts.”
UNEP said that the Covid-19 pandemic led to an “unprecedented” 5.4-percent drop in global emissions in 2020.
However, even this was not enough to narrow the gap between humanity’s current emissions trajectory and a 1.5C world.
