The UN Environment Report acknowledges that the world is at last beginning to tackle its fossil fuel addiction. Coal is no longer competitive, and wind farms and solar installations are gathering pace – in Australia, northern Europe, China, India and elsewhere.
It also confirms that electric mobility and ride sharing are redefining transport, especially in cities tired of breathing dirty air. Huge strides in energy efficiency are being made.
The problem, as the science here is telling us, is that we’re not making the change nearly as quickly as we need to. This is of course not new – it’s an almost carbon copy of what we were told last year, and the years before that. But what we do have is yet more compelling science, and something that adds to that provided by the 1.5 degree report recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The message is clear: we need to make an almost existential change, the solutions are there, and we have no excuse.
And yes, it is still possible to bridge the emissions gap to keep global warming below 2°C. However, the opportunity to bridge the 1.5°C gap is dwindling. We can also see that the kind of unprecedented action we urgently need is not happening yet: in fact, global CO2 emissions did increase in 2017 after a few years of stagnation.
Even if the nations of the world live up to their current commitments, that will likely result in global warming of around 3°C by the end of the century. That’s a number that would be catastrophic – and fatal for many small island states and coastal areas. The fact is that we are already seeing climate change play out in front of us.
From the Caribbean superstorms to droughts in the Horn of Africa, or record temperatures and wildfires, our planet is already changing.
Global efforts to tackle climate change are way off track says the UN, as it details the first rise in CO2 emissions in four years.
The emissions gap report says that economic growth is responsible for a rise in 2017 while national efforts to cut carbon have weakened.
The report comes days before a major UN climate conference starting in Poland from 2-14 December.
For the last nine years, UN Environment have produced an assessment of the latest scientific studies on current and future emissions of greenhouse gases.
It highlights the difference between the level of greenhouse gas emissions that the world can sustain to keep temperatures within safe limits, with the levels that are likely based on the promises and actions taken by countries.
This year’s report records the largest gap yet between where we are and where we need to be.