Page 25 - bneMag Oct23

bne October 2023 Companies & Markets I 25
The UN has released a dire global stocktake of the state of play to reach the Paris accord targets in time to prevent global temperatures rising by 1.5C. We have two years left to do it and the target will probably be missed, leading to an environment disaster of biblical proportions. / bne IntelliNews
bne:Green
UN report: two years left to reduce emissions and avoid global disaster, and we probably won't make it
Ben Aris in Berlin
We have two years to fix the climate and reach the Paris accord emission targets, according to a UN global stocktake report, and we are not going to make it.
“The global stocktake is unfolding in a critical decade
for climate action,” the report says. “Global emissions
need to be nearly halved by 2030 for the world to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In addition, transformational adaptation is also needed to help communities and ecosystems cope with the climate impacts that are already occurring and are expected to intensify.”
The report is the most comprehensive report yet on the state of play in the effort to reduce emissions and ensure global warming is contained to a 1.5C rise, to prevent irreversible damage to the climate that will unleash untold damage on food supplies, cause extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels and mass migration flows as parts of the earth become uninhabitable.
The alarm bells are ringing loudly and the UN says the
world is already badly off track. In March this year, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest Synthesis Report, which summarises all the scientific reports it has published during its sixth assessment cycle – the first comprehensive report for nine years.
“It highlighted just how far off track the world is, reinforcing last year’s UN Climate Change report, which stated the combined climate pledges of 194 Parties under the Paris Agreement could put the world on track for around 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century,” the UN stocktake report said. “The science is unequivocal: a course correction is needed. And it needs to happen now.”
Too little, too late
Eleven leading counties have reduced emissions, but as the Lancet recently said in a separate report, none of them are anywhere near on track to meet their Paris obligations. Even the best performing countries need to treble or quadruple their efforts to hit the goals.
www.bne.eu