The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Paris climate agreement: climate plans fall far short of the 2

2021-02-26T13:07:52.734Z


The plans of the member states of the Paris Climate Agreement to date are far from sufficient to meet the goals of the agreement by 2030. The UN climate secretariat is calling for improvements.


Icon: enlarge

Climate activist in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Photo: Omer Messinger / Getty Images

In 2015, 196 parties in the Paris Climate Agreement agreed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 to two degrees compared to the period before industrialization.

To achieve this, massive greenhouse gas savings have to be made.

But the national and international plans for implementation leave a lot to be desired, according to a current analysis by the UN Climate Change Secretariat.

It assessed 48 updated climate plans that had been submitted by states party to the agreement by the end of 2020.

The European Union's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 was also included.

Overall, the analysis covers plans from 75 countries that are responsible for 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

more on the subject

  • EU heads of state adopt new climate target: Europe's compromise to save the world An analysis by Susanne Götze

  • SPIEGEL Climate Report: Conflicts, Extra Hot By Kurt Stukenberg, Deputy Head of Science

According to the analysis, the implementation of these announcements would reduce global emissions by only one percent by 2030 compared to 2010.

To put it into perspective: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has calculated that a reduction in emissions of 45 percent would be necessary for the 1.5 degree target, for the 2 degree target these would have to drop by 25 percent.

However, not all states have yet submitted new plans.

"This report shows that the current level of climate ambition is far from the goals of the Paris Agreement," said Patricia Espinosa, head of the UN climate secretariat.

She called on the member states to undertake more ambitious projects.

Concrete plans are needed to move away from fossil fuels.

"Right now it's like walking blindfolded into a minefield."

Environmental offender Brazil

According to the Climate Action Tracker, Japan, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia have in fact not improved their 2015 plans at all.

Brazil’s plan does not even contain any targets to reduce emissions by 2030 or to curb increasing deforestation.

The signatories of the Paris Climate Agreement have to present new climate targets every five years in order to close the gap to the 1.5 or 2 degree target.

After all, the EU, Great Britain, Argentina, Chile, Norway, Kenya and Ukraine have improved their goals.

Other states have not yet submitted anything, although the deadline for this actually expired at the end of last year.

The United States was only part of the agreement again last Friday after ex-President Donald Trump left the country.

New announcements are expected from China by the next climate summit on April 22nd.

China and the USA together cause almost 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Around a quarter of global emissions come from China alone.

In 2020 the state announced that it wanted to become climate neutral by 2060.

Concrete commitments until 2030 are still open.

Icon: The mirror

jme

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-02-26

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-09T13:53:25.890Z

Trends 24h

Tech/Game 2024-03-27T18:05:36.686Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.