A new United Nations report warns that global governments are “far from” ambitious enough to adequately tackle climate change and meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. To fix this, the report shows that countries have to redouble their efforts and adjust their targets by the end of this year to limit the rise in global temperature by the end of the century.
The NDC Synthesis Report analyzes the governments’ climate action plans that have already been presented to the UN as part of the global effort to reduce emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. So far, 75 parties – representing about 30% of the world’s total emissions – have submitted their plans. A second report is expected to be released before the UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26) in November.
Most of the countries included in the report have improved how ambitious they would be individually to reduce emissions, but according to the UN, the combined level of impact is not good enough.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that emissions must be reduced by about 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 and to ensure that the average global temperature does not rise by more than 1 , 5 degrees Celsius. Although most of the countries included in Friday’s report show that their individual reduction targets have improved, combined, they will reduce emissions by less than 1% by 2030.
If the world fails to meet its goal in the next nine years, warned the IPCC, global warming will lead to “irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies”.
Patricia Espinosa, UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change, tweeted that the new report is a “warning” to the world.
“It shows that we are far from a path that meets our #ParisAgreement goals,” she said. “In 2021, we will have a rare opportunity to reverse this trend.”
In a statement, she also said that nations, including those that have already submitted their targets, must rework their existing targets and develop plans to better support developing nations to cope with the climate crisis.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement that “2021 is a decisive year for addressing the global climate emergency”.
“Today’s UNFCCC interim report is a red alert for our planet. It shows that governments are nowhere near the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the Paris Agreement goals,” said Guterres. “Major emitters are expected to move forward with much more ambitious emission reduction targets for 2030 in their nationally determined contributions well ahead of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow in November.”