The latest emissions report from the United Nations (UN) says current global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced 18 percent by 2030 and 45 percent by 2035 in order to keep the earth’s overall temperature rise to 1.5°C percent or less by 2100.
The report finds that if current policies continue, global warming could reach 2.8°C before the end of the century following the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement in 2025 by Donald Trump.
However the UN says returning to or below 1.5°C can be achieved as climate policies around the world have reduced emissions.
“We have a wealth of success stories showing that emissions can be cut quickly,” according to Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme. “It is now up to nations to urgently put in place policies that spark fast, deep and sustained emissions reductions, and put the world on track for a more stable climate and more stable economies and societies.”
Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the UN says global renewable electricity capacity has grown three times faster than anticipated while solar PV build-out has increased seven times faster.
Keeping to the current 1.5°C target overshoot, the report notes, will require reducing the world’s energy use of coal, oil and gas by at least 55, 15 and 5.0 percent respectively in 2035 and at least 75, 30 and 35 percent by 2040.
"Overshoot is not surrender. We can still keep it as small and as short as possible – and bring temperatures back below 1.5 degrees by the end of the century,” adds UN secretary-general António Guterres.
