It is striking, according to the report, that more and more countries are promising to achieve zero emissions by the middle of this century. This is a “significant and encouraging development,” said the UN. At the time of the report’s adoption, 126 countries had announced plans to cut their emissions to zero at some point in the mid-century. Together these countries account for 51 percent of the global amount of greenhouse gases.
Recently, a series of larger countries have made such a promise, such as China, South Korea, Japan and South Africa. The EU has done this before and is talking at a summit this week about tightening the climate interim target by 2030. “But”, says Michel den Elzen, “it is important that it does not stop with fine words and promises. Now governments will do it. actually have to draw up policy and come up with concrete measures. “
Earlier it became clear that the efforts of governments worldwide must increase by a factor of 3 to limit global warming to two degrees, and even have to be quintupled to reach one and a half degrees.
Aviation and shipping
In Paris, it was agreed in 2015 that global warming should be limited to well below two degrees, and preferably close to one and a half degrees. Since then, scientific research has shown that the differences between two and one and a half degrees of warming are much larger than was thought in 2015.
The report also looks at aviation and shipping, which together emit about 5 percent of global emissions. According to the report, they need to be more efficient with energy and quickly undergo a transition to stop using fossil fuels.
Citizens should also be encouraged to use less energy. The rich elites in particular, who emit proportionally a lot, will have to reduce their ‘footprint’ by a factor of thirty. Only then, according to the report, can they remain “in line with Paris.”
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