The gap is "catastrophic" between national pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the reductions that would be needed to keep warming below 2°C, the UN environment chief warned on Tuesday, six days before COP23.
" States' current commitments barely cover one third of the necessary emission reductions, creating a dangerous gap. "This is a sign of major disruptions (heat waves, floods, super-hurricanes, etc.)," says Erik Solheim, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which publishes its annual report on global climate action. Governments, the private sector and civil society must close this catastrophic gap."
For him, " one year after the Paris climate agreement came into force, we are far from doing what is needed to save hundreds of millions of people from a life of misery"
" The Paris agreement has boosted climate action, but this momentum is clearly running out of steam.« Costa Rican Minister Edgar Gutierrez Espeleta, President for 2017 of the United Nations Environment Assembly, said.
The review of national commitments, foreseen in 2020 by the Paris Agreement, will be "... a process that will be carried out in a timely manner. the last chance" to find the right trajectory for 2030: otherwise, " it is extremely unlikely The report, published ahead of the opening of the 23rd UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn on Monday, adds that "the world is staying below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C warmer than the Industrial Revolution.
The emission reduction commitments for 2025 or 2030, voluntarily presented by the States at COP21 at the end of 2015, are expected to raise mercury by more than 3°C by 2100.
Source: AFP
