Emissions cuts promise ‘nowhere near’ needed, says UN

Countries are not doing enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to a new United Nations climate change report.

In an assessment released Wednesday, the United Nations said that “the combined climate pledges of the 193 parties to the Paris Agreement put us on track for a global temperature rise of about 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.” rice field.

The analysis comes ahead of next month’s COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the shadow of the 2015 Paris Agreement looms large.

The main objective of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to “below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”

The challenge is enormous, with the United Nations pointing out that 1.5 degrees Celsius is considered the “upper limit” when it comes to avoiding the worst consequences of a climate emergency.

The United Nations Climate Change said its new report also shows that if national commitments remain unchanged, emissions will rise by 10.6% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.

“Last year’s analysis showed that projected emissions will continue to increase beyond 2030,” he said.

“However, while this year’s analysis shows that emissions have not increased since 2030, they have yet to show the rapid downward trend that science says is needed in this decade.”

In a statement Wednesday, Simon Steele, the UN Climate Change Executive Director, pulled no punches about the current position in which the world finds itself.

“We are still far from the scale and pace of emissions reductions needed to get on track towards a 1.5 degree Celsius world,” he said.

“To sustain this goal, governments need to step up their climate action plans now and implement them over the next eight years,” he added.

COP27 aims to continue the work done at last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the Glasgow Climate Agreement.

On Wednesday, COP26 President Alok Sharma said: “It is important to do everything within the means to achieve 1.5C.”