Page 9 - Gi_Dec2021Jan2022

industry & government news
COP26 EMISSION PLEDGES MAY LIMIT dramatic 2009 Copenhagen COP, warned
GLOBAL HEATING TO BELOW 2°C
THE PLEDGES ON greenhouse gas Melbourne has found.
emissions on the table at the COP26
climate summit in Glasgow would limit
global temperature rises to below 2°C,
the first time the world has been on
such a trajectory, according to research. reports The Guardian. That would be
Plans by India, the world’s third
biggest emitter, have made a sizeable
difference to the global temperature
estimate, research by the University of
News.indd 4
News.indd 4 18/11/2021
Business Secretary and a veteran of the
that much more needed to be done.
He told The Guardian: “Any progress is
welcome, but we need extreme caution
about declaring success on the basis
of vague and often vacuous net zero
targets three or more decades hence. For
example, Australia has a 2050 net zero
target, but its 2030 plans are in line with
4°C of warming. There is a reason for the
focus on halving emissions this decisive
decade. It reflects the urgency, clarity
and specificity we need to keep 1.5°C
alive. We cannot allow political leaders
to shift the goalposts.”
The report’s author, Malte
Meinshausen, an Associate Professor
in Climate Science at Melbourne and a
lead author for the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, said the
“momentous” shift in the projected global
warming was largely triggered by recent
improvements in India and China’s
emission targets for 2030, as well as
India’s commitment to net zero by 2070.
He said it was the first time the
combined pledges and probable
emissions paths of more than 190
countries had given a better than 50
per cent chance of limiting warming to
below 2°C. But achieving the below-
2°C rise remained highly conditional
CAMPAIGNERS WARN MORE NEEDS TO BE and depended on countries mapping
DONE TO LIMIT GLOBAL TEMPERATURE RISE credible pathways to net zero as
promised and developing nations
receiving the climate finance they have
If its commitments and those of called for to reach carbon neutrality.
other nations at the talks are fulfilled, Scientists have said improved
temperatures would probably rise by research since Paris shows the 1.5°C
about 1.9°C above pre-industrial levels, target was the limit of safety, beyond
which some of the impacts of climate
lower than the 2°C upper limit but breakdown were likely to become
higher than the 1.5°C lower limit set out irreversible, such as small islands being
in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. inundated and extreme weather taking
Ed Miliband, Labour’s Shadow hold across swathes of the planet.
steel, cement and chemicals, said they
made no progress at a meeting with
Junior Business Minister Lee Rowley.
Government insiders said Sunak did
not favour a sector-wide rescue scheme
and that any help — if it came — was likely
to be in the form of loans to individual
companies. “We are not going to reward
failure,” said one.
The Department of Business said:
“Ministers and officials continue to engage
constructively and regularly with industry
to understand and to help mitigate the
impacts of high global gas prices. Our
priority is to ensure costs are managed and
INDUSTRY HAS SUFFERED FROM THE PRICE RISES supplies of energy are maintained.”
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