UN warns about shortfall in climate action

There is a "catastrophic" gap between national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the actions needed to cap global warming below two degrees Celsius, the UN's environment chief warned Tuesday, days ahead of global climate talks in Bonn.

Even if fulfilled, these pledges -- inscribed along with the 2 C target in the 2015 Paris climate pact -- would see the world heat up 3 C (5.6 F), unleashing deadly heatwaves, super storms and rising seas, UN Environment said in its annual Emissions Gap report, the bleakest ever.

Record-setting extreme weather in 2017 -- including monsoon flooding, raging fires and deadly hurricanes -- likely bears the fingerprint of global warming, it noted.

"One year after the Paris Agreement entered into force, we still find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future," said Eric Solheim, head of the UN agency.

"Governments, the private sector and civil society must bridge this catastrophic climate gap."

Compiled by more than 200 climate scientists and experts, the annual, 100-page analysis tracks progress toward the Paris goal of checking the rise in global temperatures at "well below" 2 C.

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With many poor nations already feeling the sting of a planet out of kilter with only one degree of warming, the treaty also vowed to explore the feasibility of holding the line at 1.5 C.

Current commitments for slashing pollution take us only a third of the way toward the 2 C target, and would eat up 80 percent of humanity's "carbon budget" -- the amount of CO2 we can spew into the atmosphere without crossing that threshold -- by 2030, the report said.

It doesn't help that the United States, the world's second largest emitter, has abandoned its greenhouse gas goals under Donald Trump.

"Momentum is clearly faltering," said Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta, Costa Rica's environment minister and president of the current UN Environment Assembly.

"We face a stark choice: up our ambition, or suffer the consequences."

If the gap is not closed by 2030, the report said, "It is extremely unlikely that the goal of holding global warming to well below 2 C can still be reached."

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To stay on the 2 C track, humanity must cut its emissions to about 42 billion tons of CO2 or its equivalent by 2030 from last year's 52 billion tones.

But even with carbon cutting pledges from more than 190 nations, carbon pollution in 2030 is set to rise to 53 billion tones. Without them, emissions shoot up to 60 billion tones.

Under the UN climate talks, countries will not revisit their pledges until 2020 -- "the last opportunity to close the 2030 emissions gap," the report said.

(Source: AFP)

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