The world must ditch polluting fossil fuels, peak CO2 emissions by 2025 and do “much more, now, on all fronts” to stop the climate crisis, according to a report produced under the auspices of of the United Nations Climate Organization, which will be at the center of the COP28 that will be held in Dubai three months from now.
This long-awaited 90-page report with 17 “key lessons” is the first assessment of all the efforts made or not since 2015 by humanity to meet the Paris Agreement and its most ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1 .5 °C.
The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, warned on Friday the leaders who will participate this weekend in the G-20 summit in New Delhi that the world “cannot continue like this” and that the lack of unity of the countries in the face of global problems it can lead to “catastrophe”.
This latest call for attention from the UN comes at a time when the leaders of the main G-20 countries are meeting in New Delhi, with little hope of achieving ambitious progress on the climate issue. Greenhouse gas emissions from the United States and Europe have been declining for years, while those from China (the world’s largest emitter) and India continue to rise.
The document presented yesterday is the first technical step in the first “global assessment” of the Paris Agreement, which the signatory countries must conclude at the 28th UN climate conference, from November 30 to December 12 in the United Arab Emirates, agreeing to a political decision at the height of what is at stake, even more so after the hottest summer ever recorded in the world, marked by multiple heat waves, floods, fires and other extreme weather phenomena encouraged due to climate change.
Based on the alarming scientific reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this assessment will be the indisputable basis for the tough negotiations at this conference, billed as the largest COP in history (90,000 people are expected), with the future of fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – in the spotlight. “The world is not on track to achieve the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement,” the report concludes, as expected.
Meanwhile, global warming has already reached around 1.2°C compared to the pre-industrial era. And its devastating effects multiply with every tenth additional degree of warming. “Although action continues, there is still a lot of work to be done on all fronts”, summarizes the report.
In particular, “developing renewable energies and abandoning all fossil fuels without capturing CO2 are indispensable elements of a just energy transition towards carbon neutrality”, states the report, and places the issue of fossil fuels, not explicitly mentioned in the Paris Agreement, at the center of the negotiations.
Humanity must “reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels,” and achieve carbon neutrality by to 2050, continue. But time is running out.
“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to increase ambitions and implement existing commitments to limit global warming to 1.5°C,” warns the report, written by a South African expert and his counterpart of the United States after years of consultations with experts from member countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and observers from environmental groups.
In response, the report once again outlines ways to intensify efforts in favor of financing, mainly in developing countries. “The fundamental principles of the Paris Agreement are still not being respected by the 197 parties”, but “the burden of the response rests mainly IN 20 countries”, the head of the UN Climate told AFP on Thursday , Simon Stiell, addressing the G-20 leaders.
