The Paris climate agreement provides for global warming to be limited to 1.5 degrees.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The earth is currently heading for a global warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times. This emerges from the new emissions gap report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which was published on Tuesday. “We are still on the way to a climate catastrophe,” warned António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), in New York this Tuesday.
According to the report, the countries’ commitments to climate protection fall far short of what is necessary. This is published once a year and quantifies the gap between the promise of the countries to reduce climate-damaging emissions and the reduction that would actually be necessary in order to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Even if the announcements of individual countries in the past few days were taken into account, Guterres said, the temperature would rise by more than two degrees.
The Paris Agreement, agreed by the international community in December 2015, provides for global warming to be limited to below two degrees Celsius, ideally 1.5 degrees, by 2100 compared to the pre-industrial period. To date, the temperature has increased by an average of 1.1 degrees. According to the World Weather Organization (WMO), the value in Germany is 1.6 degrees.
The UN is now counting on the upcoming world climate conference in Glasgow, the COP26. They hope that the heads of state and government will present new, improved climate targets right at the beginning of the two-week conference and that this will create a dynamic that will motivate other countries to follow suit.
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Australia names date for net zero emissions
Some countries had already announced more ambitious climate targets in the past few months, others are following suit. Australia, for example, announced on Tuesday that it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Net zero means that no more emissions are emitted than can be absorbed by natural sinks such as forests.
The Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison had long refused to set a specific date for achieving climate neutrality, even though Australia itself has repeatedly been hard hit by the effects of climate change.
The 20 leading industrialized and emerging countries (G20), including Australia, are particularly relevant to achieving the climate target. They are responsible for around 80 percent of global emissions.
“Some G20 states or groups of states, such as the EU, USA, New Zealand and UK, have already sharpened their goals significantly – but still not enough for a 1.5-degree policy,” complains the environmental and development organization Germanwatch. Morally, the greatest pressure is on countries with the highest per capita emissions. In addition to Australia, this also includes Saudi Arabia, Canada and the USA.
China needs to sharpen goals
Above all, however, China, which is responsible for almost a third of absolute global emissions, has to sharpen its target, demands Germanwatch. The People’s Republic continues to record rising emissions, but reaffirmed on Tuesday that it wanted to reach the peak of CO2 emissions before 2030.
Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry, spoke at an event in Berlin with a view to Australia and China of enormously important steps, even if these were not yet sufficient.
The emerging economies with the greatest growth in emissions, such as India, must also reverse the trend of rising emissions. Only then, for example, thinks it is possible for Germanwatch to still be able to adhere to the 1.5 degree limit.
Net-zero pledges could make a big difference, the United Nations said, but current plans are vague and not reflected in the officially submitted climate targets.
So far, a total of over 50 countries have committed themselves not to emit more greenhouse gases by the middle of the century than can be removed from the atmosphere through reduction measures. According to the United Nations, this covers more than half of global domestic greenhouse gas emissions, more than half of gross domestic product and a third of the world’s population.
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