A new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report is warning even if all current unconditional commitments under the Paris Agreement are implemented, temperatures are expected to rise by 3.2°C, bringing ever more wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts. On the eve of a year in which nations are due to strengthen their Paris climate pledges, UNEP’s annual Emissions Gap Report says that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent each year between 2020 and 2030, the world will miss the opportunity to get on track towards the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. Collective ambition must increase more than fivefold over current levels to cut global emissions by 7.6 per cent every year for the next decade in order to meet the 1.5°C Paris target, UNEP says.
“For ten years, the Emissions Gap Report has been sounding the alarm – and for ten years, the world has only increased its emissions,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “There has never been a more important time to listen to the science. Failure to heed these warnings and take drastic action to reverse emissions means we will continue to witness deadly and catastrophic heatwaves, storms and pollution.”