NEW DELHI: A new UN report assessing countries' latest climate action pledges on Tuesday said the current commitments of these nations would collectively reduce global carbon emissions by 11% by 2030 and about 17% by 2035 from the 2019 levels. Though this would be the first-ever climate action-linked decline, the extent of the fall would be far short of the 60% reduction (by 2035) required to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius.
The report, released ahead of the upcoming UN climate conference (CO), synthesises information from 64 countries' new nationally determined contributions (NDCs) - climate action targets - communicated to the UN body between Jan 1, 2024, and Sept 30, 2025.
Major emitters, including China, India and the European Union, have so far not submitted their new targets. The overall picture, therefore, will be different once they submit their new NDCs ahead of CO, to be held in Belem, Brazil, from Nov 10 to 21.
China and the EU have announced their targets but have yet to make a formal submission. If their announced targets are clubbed with the overall figure, the collective global carbon emissions reduction would be 10% by 2035 from the 2019 levels.
"Countries are making progress and laying clear stepping stones toward net-zero emissions but must urgently pick up the pace," said Simon Stiell, executive secretary, UN climate change, in response to the report.
The 64 countries, including the US, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, New Zealand and the UK, which have submitted their NDCs, represent only around 30% of global GHG emissions on a 2019 baseline. "According to their NDCs, Parties (countries) are bending their combined emission curve further downward but still not quickly enough," said the report, emphasising the need for "major acceleration" in terms of delivering faster and deeper emission reductions to meet the desired goals.
Quantitatively, the world needs to cut 43% of its emissions by 2030, 60% by 2035, 69% by 2040 and 84% by 2050, compared to 2019 levels, to limit the warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Referring to the financial needs ofcountries for implementation of their climate action targets, the report has estimated costs of $1.97 trillion, of which about $1.07 trillion is needed from international sources.
Vishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on...
Read MoreVishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on environment, climate change, agriculture, water resources and clean energy, tracking policy issues and climate diplomacy. He has been covering Parliament since 2003 to see how politics shaped up domestic policy and India’s position at global platform. Before switching over to explore sustainable development issues, Vishwa had covered internal security and investigative agencies for more than a decade.
Read Less
Start a Conversation
Post comment