The group of climate experts deplores the fact that governments are failing to meet commitments made during the 2015 Paris Agreement while global warming continues.
An inevitable trend. An IPCC rapporteur estimated on France Info on Sunday that the target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century was no longer “attainable” when COP27 opened in Egypt.
+1.5°C by 2035
“(The target of a temperature increase of 1.5°C by the end of the century) is almost unachievable. People must be told the truth,” demands IPCC rapporteur François Gemenne.
For the Climate Expert Group, the increase in the average temperature on the earth’s surface by 1.5 °C is far exceeded.
“We will have a temperature increase of 1.5 °C by around 2035,” he predicts, given the continued increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era was the main goal of the Paris Agreement, that international agreement on global warming adopted at COP21 in 2015.
Unfulfilled Obligations
But to realize this ambitious project, greenhouse gas emissions would need to fall by 45% by 2030. Hard to imagine if the signatory states’ current commitments, even if finally met, resulted in a 5 to 10% increase in emissions, which experts say puts the world on a course of at best 2.4°C by the end of the century .
“It’s never too late,” said François Gemenne, who urged people not to give up.
“Anything that succeeds in limiting greenhouse gas emissions also limits temperature rise,” he explains.
The scientist believes we must maintain our ambition for climate but be more realistic, particularly by aiming for an “achievable” target of 2°C of global warming.
Juliette Desmonceaux with AFP