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The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted by nearly every nation on earth, “has spurred near-universal climate action,” according to a detailed United Nations assessment released Friday, and yet the world remains committed to its efforts. to stop the warming, the planet is woefully off track.
Findings published by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said that “the window of opportunity is shrinking” for the world to cut emissions from burning fossil fuels more quickly and avoid an ever-worsening series of disasters that are becoming more likely as the atmosphere gets hotter.
Friday’s report comes ahead of this year’s COP28 global climate summit, scheduled to begin in the United Arab Emirates in late November. While the two-week meeting has a lengthy agenda, a key focus will be completing a formal, comprehensive assessment of how far the world has come in achieving the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement – and how much work remains to be done.
This global “stocktake” to determine whether the world is actually on track to reduce its emissions enough to meet the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement will document some bright spots – for example, that emissions in industrial and… peaked in some developing countries.
But it paints a sobering picture of the pace of change that scientists believe is necessary.
“Overall, we’re not doing well,” David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s International Climate Initiative, said in an interview. Friday’s report made that clear again.
But Waskow also said his 17 clear findings on issues such as adapting to climate change, increasing financing to help poor countries move away from fossil fuels in their development and more urgent action to reduce emissions provide a detailed roadmap provide for the kind of transformations that are required to happen in the years to come.
“It’s a call to action in many ways,” he said. “Now it is in the hands of governments to implement this… We know a lot about what can and must be done. We’re not in the dark.”
Year after year, scientists and researchers, environmentalists and governments, diplomats and policymakers have detailed how the world’s biggest emitters – despite signs of progress – have failed to deliver on their promises to reduce carbon pollution and help smaller and more vulnerable countries have Cope with the mounting disasters brought on by a warming planet.
But even high-profile promises to increase ambition at a global climate summit in Scotland in 2021 showed little sign of becoming a reality, a UN report found late last year. The report noted that countries have reduced their projected greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 by just 1 percent – putting Earth on track to exceed key temperature thresholds that scientists say will lead to worse disasters.
The same analysis found that even if countries met their existing commitments, the Earth would still warm by a dangerous 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. That is well above the 1.5 degree Celsius limit enshrined in the Paris Agreement.
Yet few nations have so far taken the necessary action to fulfill even the lackluster promises, a reality that led UN Secretary-General António Guterres to chide world leaders for “falling woefully short of expectations.” stay behind”.
Likewise, global talks in Egypt last year ended with little progress in pushing the world to make faster and more drastic cuts in carbon emissions to avert further climate-related suffering.
While diplomats and activists at COP27 welcomed the creation of a fund to help vulnerable countries after disasters, many feared that nations’ reluctance to adopt more ambitious climate plans is pushing the planet down a path of dangerous warming.
In some ways, Friday’s U.N. assessment marks just the latest chapter in a vast collection of research and reports that highlight the many ways in which the world has failed to adequately address the dangers of climate change.
But beyond simply documenting failures, the assessment also focuses on the transformative and far-reaching actions that can help prevent the worst consequences of global warming. These include aggressively expanding renewable energy, phasing out fossil fuels, ending deforestation, providing significant climate finance to developing countries, and shaping changes that alleviate poverty and minimize environmental injustice.
Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president for climate change at the World Wildlife Fund, called Friday’s report another stark reminder that leaders must find ways to move faster.
“Hope is not lost. We have seen decisive actions taken that are making a difference,” she said in a statement accompanying the results. At the same time, she said: “It is clear that we cannot continue as before… We must face the reality that it will require a lot of challenging work – continued advances in science and technology, strong political will and action” from individuals , communities, businesses and governments if we are to tackle the greatest global crisis of our time.”
For decades, scientists have meticulously documented how humans are accelerating the warming of the planet by burning fossil fuels, and how this relentless trend has led to a growing number of disasters in every part of the world – often with some of the poorest populations having little to do with causing it those who contributed to the problem bear the worst consequences.
But it doesn’t take extensive reports and outspoken scientists to see that the consequences of a hotter planet are increasing.
Last summer was the hottest ever recorded in human history, and its legacy is one of death, destruction and misery – from crippling and historic heatwaves in many parts of the world to record-breaking wildfires in Canada and Europe to biblical ones Flooding from record rainfall in places as far away as Greece, China and Florida.
Global emissions hit another record high in 2022, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen to levels not seen in millions of years. The atmosphere has already warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 Fahrenheit), and humans are pumping carbon pollution into the atmosphere so quickly that the world could exhaust its remaining “carbon budget” in just a few years.
Of course there are signs of progress.
The United States passed its first major climate law in history last year, the Inflation Reduction Act. The expansion of renewable energy continues to grow rapidly and sales of electric vehicles have skyrocketed. The climate promises made by nations in recent years, if they become reality, will move the world away from some of the worst-case scenarios that seemed possible just a few years ago.
Friday’s UN assessment underscores that these kinds of measures need to be implemented in more ways, with greater urgency and in more countries if the world is to build the better future it promised in Paris years ago.
“It represents a bold to-do list for governments to limit warming to 1.5 (degrees) Celsius and protect people everywhere from climate destruction,” said Tom Evans, policy advisor at climate think tank E3G, in an explanation. “With this report in hand, governments going to COP28 have done their homework.”
Climate change and global warming
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