The United Nations is warning that countries around the world will have to triple their efforts to cut greenhouse gases to have any chance of preventing a climate change catastrophe.
The latest annual report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that the carbon-reduction commitments already made by many countries will not be enough to prevent global temperatures rising more than the generally agreed target of 2C.
The report warns that annual greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high of 53.5bn tonnes in 2017 – and show no sign of peaking by 2030, let alone 2020.
The authors noted that global emissions could go between 13bn and 15bn tonnes beyond the level needed to prevent global temperatures rising beyond 2C this century.
The report comes ahead of a major UN climate conference, which gets underway in Poland this weekend.
The conference aims to produce a set of rules on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to keep the rise between 1.5C and 2C.
The Niederaussem power plant from RWE Power. Bergheim-Niederaussem, 09-08-2018. Image: Christoph Hardt/Geisler-Fotopres/DPA/PA Images
The report finds that the current pace of action by global governments is insufficient to meet the Paris targets.
It warns that the gap between expected 2030 levels and the levels required to achieve the 2C target are now “larger than ever.”
As a result, the authors are warning that nations must triple their efforts in order to meet the 2C target and raise their ambition by five times to keep the rise below 1.5C.
'Feeding the fire'
“If the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation,” said UN Environment Deputy Executive Director Joyce Msuya.
“The science is clear; for all the ambitious climate action we’ve seen – governments need to move faster and with greater urgency.
“We’re feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach.”
The report finds that unless governments take drastic action, global temperatures will rise by around 3C by the end of the century.
The authors are insisting that there is still the possibility of bridging the gap – but warning that “the kind of drastic, large-scale action we urgently need has yet to been seen.”
The current pace of national #ClimateAction is insufficient to meet the #ParisAgreement targets.
Learn about the #EmissionsGap & what can be done to bridge it through this data viz 👇 https://t.co/uXlR1oNMjX— UN Environment (@UNEnvironment) November 27, 2018
Global hope
They note that “surging momentum from the private sector and untapped potential from innovation and green-financing offer pathways to bridge the emissions gap.”
“When governments embrace fiscal policy measures to subsidize low-emission alternatives and tax fossil fuels, they can stimulate the right investments in the energy sector and significantly reduce carbon emissions,” said Jian Liu, UN Environment’s Chief Scientist.
“Thankfully, the potential of using fiscal policy as an incentive is increasingly recognized, with 51 carbon pricing initiatives now in place or scheduled, covering roughly 15% of global emissions.
“If all fossil fuel subsidies were phased out, global carbon emissions could be reduced by up to 10% by 2030.”
She said that if taxes are introduced to set the price of carbon at $70 (€62) per tonne, “emission reductions of up to 40 percent are possible in some countries.”
Ireland’s current carbon charge is currently set at €20 per tonne.
The Government’s failure to introduce a rise in this year’s budget was labelled a “staggering failure of political leadership” by environmentalists.
