After 25 years of Conferences of the Parties (COPs), the goals for next week’s COP25 fall grievously short of addressing worsening climate catastrophies.
If the world had gotten its act together in 2010, countries would only have to reduce their emissions 3.3 percent per year to reach the 1.5 degree Celsius target.www.vox.com/...
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa tweets,” @UNEP #EmissionsGap report shows we can still limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C. But it will take a huge effort from governments, cities, businesses and investors, at #COP25 and beyond. The time for transformational change is NOW”
The annual Dec. 2 -13 UNFCCC Climate Change Conference — COP25 — launches in Madrid Monday, just days following the release of the dire UNEP Emissions Gap Report. The report stressed the urgent need to power up our response to the climate crisis beginning in 2020. Cutting emissions by 7% each year, the report concluded, is the only scenario towards a trajectory of limiting global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees C. To limit temperature rise to the 2 degrees C, emissions must be cut by 2.7%.
The Gap report echoes the IPCC’s earlier findings which called for expediting cuts in emissions on a global scale to avert a point of no return. This year’s COP venue was scheduled in Chile but due to massive protests against social inequalities was moved to Madrid. The rapid response to finding a new venue for the Climate Talks and the fact that the talks were not postponed indicates how seriously the COP is taking these new warnings. (Read 1.5°C “Almost Impossible” Without Deeper and Faster Cuts, Warns UNEP Emissions Gap Report.)
Even if countries meet commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is heading for a 3.2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise over pre-industrial level
Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5 percent every year over the last decade, according to the annual assessment. The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread hunger by midcentury. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must decline sharply, by 7.6 percent every year, between 2020 and 2030, the report warned.
Six take aways from the IPCC report blogs.edf.org/...
The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 197 counties, falls woefully short of a 7% reduction. In fact, only 16 of the 197 signatories to the Paris Agreement have issued national action plans (NAPs) sufficient to meet the goal of reducing emissions to the 2 percent temperature increase threshold.
“Our analysis reveals that countries are being slow to reproduce their NDC (‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ or climate pledges in UN jargon) commitments as targets in national laws and policies,” the report said.
Last year, China increased greenhouse gas emissions, as did the US and the UK. While the US has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, it retains its involvement for one year.
… dealing with climate change will require not only technical and practical transformations in sectors like energy and transportation, but also social transformations. Climate change amplifies social inequities. Sea level rise, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires, among other hazards, affect food, water, air, land, energy, and other securities. Some groups are affected more than others, depending on where they live and their ability to cope. What is needed are “green transitions” that support people who live in poverty and in indigenous communities with limited resources, as well as those in urban communities struck by higher energy costs and air and water pollution. An even bigger climate problem
“The bottom line is that active participation by all of us—governments, businesses, investors, regions and more—is needed if we are to overcome the climate emergency we currently face,” said Secretary Espinosa.
