Oct. 28 (UPI) — Countries’ national plans to tackle climate change are nowhere near what is required to prevent the warming of the Earth from ruining every economy and destroying the lives and livelihoods of their citizens, the United Nations warned in a damning report Monday.
The so-called Nationally Determined Contributions Synthesis Report, looking at what each country says it is doing to curb the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global heating, shows combined net emissions of 51.5 gigatons of CO2 equivalent in 2030, just 2.6% below 2019 levels, compared with the 43% cut required to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, U.N. Climate Change said in a statement.
“The report’s findings are stark but not surprising — current national climate plans fall miles short of what’s needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy, and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country,” said U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
“By contrast, much bolder new national climate plans can not only avert climate chaos — done well, they can be transformational for people and prosperity in every nation.
“Bolder new climate plans are vital to drive stronger investment, economic growth and opportunity, more jobs, less pollution, better health and lower costs, more secure and affordable clean energy, among many other benefits,” Stiell said.
However, he noted that while the fractional advances from last year’s findings were not unexpected given countries were in the process of preparing new NDCs due in 2025 those plans had to deliver a “dramatic step up” with ambitious economy-wide emissions cuts that keep 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach; are broken down by sector/greenhouse gas type; and have regulatory, statutory and budgetary backing.
With climate disasters worsening at an ever-increasing pace, “every fraction of a degree” mattered, said Stiell, but he warned the greenhouse gas pollution levels the NDC report showed are coming down the track will “guarantee a human and economic trainwreck for every country, without exception.”
The gravity of what was at stake placed the new national climate plans “among the most important” policy documents of the 21st century, he added.
The report calls for a 10-year time horizon for the new NDCs along with much tougher targets for 2030 to deliver the drastic emission cuts by the end of the 2020s required to get a head start on reaching the 60% reduction in emissions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are needed by 2035 to keep to a 1.5C rise.
U.N. Climate Change said it was working closely with U.N. agencies across the board to provide a range of practical support that took into account “severe capacity-constraints and other headwinds” confronting many countries, especially vulnerable and developing countries.
The agency said it would hold a deliver a series of events next year to that end and intiate a global public conversation on how to deliver on the new NDCs.
Details are set to be announced in November at the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan.