The world actually wants to get the climate crisis under control – but its plans are still far from enough. The upcoming world climate conference in Dubai faces major tasks.
According to a United Nations analysis, with the climate protection plans currently submitted by countries, the world is far from stopping global warming at 1.5 degrees. “The report shows that governments, taken together, are taking baby steps to avert the climate crisis,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell on Tuesday. The world climate conference in Dubai in December must be a “turning point”. “Governments must not only agree on stronger climate protection measures, but also show exactly how they want to implement them.”
The international community has agreed on the goal of stopping global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times in order to avert the most catastrophic consequences such as more droughts, storms, floods and heat waves.
Miles from the destination
To show how far the world is from achieving this goal, the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat evaluated all climate action plans submitted by countries by September 25th – and came to the following conclusions:
Even if everyone implements their plans, the global greenhouse gas emissions emitted in 2030 would only be two percent below the 2019 level. This means that the peak value of emissions would still be measured in this decade – but for the climate targets agreed in Paris much too late. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees as desired, emissions in 2030 would have to be 43 percent lower than in 2019. Compared to 2010, the climate-damaging emissions in 2030 would still be 8, according to the calculation. 8 percent higher. This forecast has only improved slightly since last year.
The fact that states often do not implement their own climate protection plans at all or only implement them slowly is not taken into account in this analysis.
“Every tenth of a degree counts”
“Every tenth of a degree counts, but we are seriously off track. COP28 is the time to change that,” said Stiell. The UN climate summit COP28 with representatives from around 200 countries will take place in Dubai from November 30th. “It’s time to demonstrate the enormous benefits of taking more decisive action on climate change: more jobs, higher wages, economic growth, opportunity and stability, less pollution and better health.”
WWF climate chief Vivane Raddatz calls on the EU to make a more ambitious contribution. “And Germany? Doesn’t take action: Instead of strengthening the climate protection law, the government wants to water it down. The building and transport transition is stagnating,” said Raddatz.
What’s wrong?
The “State of Climate Action” report, also published on Tuesday, by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the NewClimate Institute as well as Climate Analytics and the Bezos Earth Fund shows what exactly has been lacking so far. There is therefore a lack of speed in the energy, industry, transport and the restructuring of agriculture and forestry sectors. Of the 42 indicators examined, only the sale of electric cars is on track to achieve the milestones calculated for 2030. Here are some examples:
The share of solar and wind energy has increased by an average of 14 percent annually in recent years. But 24 percent would be necessary to get to 1.5 degrees by 2030. According to the study, the pace of phasing out coal would have to increase sevenfold. Converted, this means that around 240 coal-fired power plants would have to be shut down every year by 2030. Forest destruction: From 2021 to 2022, the deforested area increased from 5.4 to 5.8 million hectares, which is roughly equivalent to the area of Croatia. Climate-damaging subsidies: Defiance Despite promises to the contrary, state subsidies for oil, gas and coal almost doubled from 2020 to 2021 – also because of the energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine.
Claire Fyson from Climate Analytics said it was absurd to continue investing heavily in gas and coal power as the climate crisis escalates. At the UN climate conference in Dubai in December, all governments around the world would have to agree on a fair and rapid exit from oil, gas and coal.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
