ENVIRONMENT -The pledges to cut emissions by some 150 countries ahead of the upcoming UN Paris climate summit still fall short of the internationally agreed 2°C global warming target, a new UN report released on Oct. 30 warns, underlining that the challenge in Paris will be finding a way to bridge that gap. The UN’s assessment is not a surprise, as several other organizations -including the International Energy Agency and the OECD -have said in October that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) by the countries will not achieve the 2°C goal (JFI Nov.2’15). The UN says that greenhouse gases emissions growth over 2010-30 would “slow down considerably” from the period of 1990-2010. Implementing the pledges would lower global emissions by 6% in 2030 from current trends, according to the report. This would be 15% above the “least cost 2°C scenarios” and would imply some 75% of the world’s “carbon budget” is used by 2030. Keeping global warming below 2°C would still be possible, the UN says, but only at “substantially” higher cost. Many countries identified conditions for the full implementation of their pledges, such as the level of effort undertaken by other parties or access to financial resources and technology transfers.
展开▼
