United Nation (UN)chief Antonio Guterres has warned that a failure to cut global emission is setting the world on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating.
A UN report on 191 countries’ emission promises found that they would not meet the ambition of the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit human caused global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.
Instead, it shows “the world is on catastrophic pathway to 2.7C degrees of heating”, Guterres said in a statement on Friday, just weeks before crunch talks at the Cop26 summit in November aimed at securing more ambitious climate action.
The new UN analysis said that, under countries’ current pledges, global emissions would be 16 percent higher in 2030 than they were in 2010—far off the 45 percent reduction by 2030 that the scientists say is needed to stave off disastrous climate change.
Without more ambitious commitments, global warming temperatures could hit 2.7C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the Century, UN said.
That would unleash far more devastating effects than those already battering countries around the world, from fatal floods to wildfires and storms.
“Overall greenhouse gas emission numbers are moving in a wrong direction,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinos said.” it’s not enough, what we have on the table.”
Espinos said she had received “very positive signals” in talks with some of countries that new commitments would arrive before the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, without naming any.
The United States and the 27-country European Union -the world’s second and third biggest emitters after China were among those to set tougher emissions-cutting targets this year.
Cop26 President Alok Sharma said that “without action from all countries, especially the biggest economies, these efforts risk being in vein”
Source: The Daily Times News_Aljazeera _20 Sep, 2021