The United Nations Environment Program has published a new report with more dire news about our chances of avoiding climate catastrophe caused by greenhouse gas emissions. According to this assessment, the current trajectory of international commitments will see the planet’s temperature rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius or more this century. This amount of temperature change will lead to more catastrophic and life-threatening weather events.
UN members are due to submit their latest Nationally Determined Contributions ahead of next year’s COP30 conference in Brazil. NDCs draw up each country’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the NDCs aim to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, while others aim to keep global temperature increase to a less ideal level of 2 degrees Celsius. While meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal is technically possible, the report says, greater action will be needed to reduce emissions by the necessary amount.
“Increasing the deployment of solar photovoltaic technologies and wind power could provide 27 percent of the potential for total emissions reductions in 2030 and 38 percent in 2035,” the report says, as examples of what is still needed. “Forestry-related activity can provide about 20 percent of the potential every two years.”
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, wrote in the foreword of the report: “Every fraction of a degree avoided is significant in terms of lives saved, economies protected, damage prevented, biodiversity preserved and the ability to quickly lower the desired temperature threshold.”
International cooperation, government commitments and financial contributions will also be essential to return to the 2 or 1.5 degree targets. “G20 countries, especially the most emitting members, will have to do the heavy lifting,” the report said.
If this all sounds familiar, it’s probably because the UN issues the same stark warnings in each of its annual emissions reports. now. And other reports echoed his calls for damnation earlier this year, just 57 companies were responsible for 80 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
