Facing Catastrophic Climate Change – Serious Actions are needed

A latest UN report has found that the actions taken by the countries to tackle the severe effects of global climate change are not progressing, and if serious additional measures are not taken in this regard then we will not be able to meet the commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Governments are in a need to take such practical steps as to impose new taxes on fossils fuels, designing and investing in clean and green technology, and much strict commitments to reduce the carbon footprints.

The UN said that the governments also need to stop subsidizing fossil fuels, directly and indirectly. Gunnar Luderer, one of the authors of the UN report and senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said: “There is still a tremendous gap between words and deeds, between the targets agreed by governments and the measures to achieve these goals. Only a rapid turnaround here can help. Emissions must be reduced by a quarter by 2030 [to keep warming to no more than 2 ^oC (3.6 ^oF) above pre-industrial levels] and for 1.5 ^oC emissions would have to be halved.”

The governments need to triple their efforts to keep global warming to less than 2 ^oC. According to UN, Greenhouse gas emissions continued to a large rise last year, but the efforts can bring this rise under control with some serious commitments. Although the private sector has already started investing in renewable energy to cut down the carbon footprints, but still there is a long way to go.

Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director of UN Environment, said: “The science is clear: for all the ambitious climate action we’ve seen, governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. We’re feeding this fire, while the means to extinguish it are within reach.”

Only 57 countries, representing 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions, are on track to cause their emissions to peak before 2030. If emissions are allowed to rise beyond that, the IPCC has said countries are likely to breach the 1.5 ^oC limit, which will trigger sea-level rises, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events.

Sources: https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2018

Photo Credits: Reuters