The United Nations has threatened governments that unless they strengthen their Paris climate pledges, the world will face “mass extinctions” and “large parts of the planet” will be uninhabitable.
A new UN Environment Program (UNEP) report warns that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent each year between 2020 and 2030, we will not reach the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement with disastrous consequences for humanity.
“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,” Guterres said.
“We’re on perilous ground,” the UN Environmental Programme said in a tweet Tuesday. “We are on track for a temperature rise of over 3°C. This would bring mass extinctions & large parts of the planet would be uninhabitable.”
An embedded video show scenes of raging wildfires, devastating floods, and large expanses of arid ground as thriller-style theme music pumps excitedly in the background.
“We think we can fool nature, but nature always strikes back,” says Mr. Guterres, while Swedish climate change scold Greta Thunberg threatens: “We will never forgive you.”
The video lays heavy responsibility on the developed countries, insisting that the G20 nations are responsible for 78 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, yet “only five G20 members have committed to a long-term zero emissions target.”
It also makes the incredible assertion that “green tech, renewables and electric mobility are increasingly becoming the cheaper options,” adding a citation from Director of UNEP DTU Partnership John Christensen that “wind and solar in most places have become the cheapest source of electricity.” If this claim were true, of course, the U.N. would not need to threaten and cajole nations to move to these technologies since the market would naturally do so.
The report also did not specify the nature of the “mass extinctions” or which large parts of the planet will no longer be inhabitable. It also did not explore which currently unpeopled regions may suddenly become inhabitable again if their worst fears are realized.
The UN went on to urge that nations “supercharge” their climate action ambition in order to close the “emissions gap.”