According to a bleak new UN study, there is “no credible pathway” to keep the global rise in temperature below the critical 1.5°C threshold.
Emission Gap Report 2022 shows the effort of nearly 200 countries that attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last year to limit and cut any rise in global temperature to 1.5C has been “woefully inadequate”.
Only an urgent system-wide transformation can deliver the enormous cuts needed to limit greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, says the study.
The UN environmental study reports that existing policies indicate a 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century. If countries get financial help to execute the plans they have put in place, this rise can be limited to 2.4°C temperature by the end of the century.
“We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, who produced the study.
“Emissions remain at dangerous and record highs and are still rising. We must close the emissions gap before climate catastrophe closes in on us all.” said the UN secretary-general, António Guterres.
The next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) will be held from 6 to 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
