New Delhi: The world is not on the “track” in reducing the greenhouse gases emission, warned the latest “emissions gap” report 2022, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and also called for the rapid “transformation of societies”.
The report, which explores the impact of new pledges and the “gap” toward meeting the Paris targets, finds that updated national pledges since COP26 – held in 2021 in Glasgow, UK – make a negligible difference to predicted 2030 emissions and countries are far from the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C.
“Policies currently in place with no additional action are projected to result in global warming of 2.8°C over the twenty-first century” said the report.
“The window is closing! The world is not on track to reach the Paris Agreement goals and global temperatures can reach 2.8°C by the end of the century” it said.
In a stark warning, the report says that incremental change is “no longer an option” and that avoiding dangerous levels of warming will require a “wide-ranging, large-scale, rapid and systemic transformation”.
It said, “despite the call for countries to “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 targets, progress since COP 26 is highly inadequate”.
The report said, “Countries are off track to achieve even the globally highly insufficient NDCs, adding that the Global GHG emissions in 2030 based on current policies are estimated at 58 GtCO2e”.
Countries’ new and updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) submitted since COP 26 reduce projected global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030 by only 0.5 gigatons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e), compared with emissions projections based on mitigation pledges at the time of COP 26.
The report also called to reduce the annual GHG emission by 45 per cent to get on track for limiting global warming 1.5°C compared with emissions projections under policies currently in place in just eight year.
The report is the 13th edition in an annual series that provides an overview of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
It also considered the transformations required in the sectors of electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings.
Calling the climate crisis is part of the “triple planetary crisis” the report said, due to climate change, this year, the world is witnessing compounding energy, food and cost of
living crises, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, all of which are causing immense human suffering.
Talking about the G20 Countries, and their plan to mitigate the global warning, the report said, G20 members are far behind in delivering on their mitigation commitments for 2030,
causing an implementation gap.
“Those that are currently projected to meet their NDC targets are countries that have either not updated their original NDCs, or did not strengthen or only moderately strengthened their target levels in their updated NDCs” it said.
Mentioning about wide-ranging, and systemic transformation is now essential to achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, the report said, “The task facing the world is immense: not just to set more ambitious targets, but also to deliver on all commitments made”.
“Climate action is imperative in all countries but must be achieved simultaneously with other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” it said.
Reacting on the report, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP said, “This report sends us a very clear message. If we are serious about climate change, we need to kick start a system-wide transformation, now”.
She added that, “We still, STILL, aren’t doing anywhere near enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions”.
