(CNN) — The planet is on a “red alert” because governments are not meeting their climate change targets, the United Nations Secretary-General said on Friday. António Guterres.
Guterres described 2021 as a “watershed year” following the publication of a report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that looks at updated climate action plans submitted by 75 countries ahead of the COP26 climate summit of November. The report concludes that current policies will not come close to meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
“Today’s interim report from the UNFCCC 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 targets of the Paris Agreement, “Guterres said in a statement.
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, countries committed to reducing their carbon emissions and stopping global warming to below 2 degrees C – and if possible, below 1.5 degrees C – by the end of the century, with the aim of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
We are nowhere near the level of ambition needed to meet the #ParisAgreement goals.
Nationally Determined Contributions of major emitters must set more ambitious targets for 2030.
Long-term commitments must be matched by immediate actions that people & planet desperately need. https://t.co/UZQoeOUtdP
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 26, 2021
Experts have repeatedly warned that exceeding the threshold will contribute to more heat waves and hot summers, further sea level rise, worse droughts and extreme rainfall, wildfires, floods and food shortages for millions of people.
According to him UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the population must reduce its CO2 emissions in 2030 by approximately 45% from 2010 levels and reach net zero in 2050 to ensure that this temperature limit is reached.
Despite best efforts, carbon reduction plans submitted to the UNFCCC are “very far” from what is needed and show that countries must “strengthen their mitigation commitments under the Paris Agreement,” according to the report. .
The report shows that the revised climate action plans – which cover 40% of the countries party to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which in turn represent 30% of global emissions – would only generate a combined emission reduction of 0, 5% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.
Guterres called on major emitters to redouble their efforts to reduce emissions and use the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to “rebuild in a greener and better way.”
Decision-makers must lead by example. Long-term commitments must be accompanied by immediate action to launch the decade of transformation that both the people and the planet need, ”added Guterres.
The report is a “photograph, not a complete picture” of individual countries’ plans due to the difficulties posed by the pandemic, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said on Friday.
The UNFCCC will publish a second report before COP26, and Espinosa urged all missing issuers to contribute.
“It is time for all the remaining parties to step up, fulfill what they promised to do and present” their plans “as soon as possible,” Espinosa said. “If this task was urgent before, now it is crucial.”
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