UN tells countries to focus on carbon emission targets
NEWDELHI: Countries will have to increase their nationally determined contributions (NDC) to curb carbon emissions threefold to achieve the well below 2-degree Celsius goal and more than fivefold to achieve the 1.5-degree Celsius goal, a UN Environment Programme report has said.
Days ahead of a crucial UN Climate Change Conference (COP 25) at Madrid, the Emissions Gap Report 2019 said with the current pledges by countries to reduce carbon emissions, there is a 66% chance that warming will be limited to 3.2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. This would mean widespread displacement, destruction owing to catastrophic climate change impact in the coming decades.
The 2015 Paris Agreement has a goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The report projected that emissions will be twice of what they should be in 2030.
The G20 countries account for 78% of all greenhouse gas emissions, but seven of them do not have policies yet to achieve their NDCs. On the progress of G20 economies,
India along with China, the EU, Mexico, Russia and Turkey are on track to meet their goals, the report said. India, Russia and Turkey are projected to overachieve their NDC emission targets.
“For decades, rich nations delayed climate action deliberately to protect their polluting industries, which has brought us to an emergency. They cannot be allowed to shift their responsibility on to developing countries who now face dual burden of tackling grave impacts of climate change, while they invest resources in greening their economies,” said Harjeet Singh, Global Lead on Climate Change at ActionAid International.