The countries across the world are “nowhere close” to fighting global warming, a UN Climate action report warned, urging them to redouble efforts and come up with stronger, ambitious climate change action plans in 2021 if they have to achieve the Paris Agreement goal.
The UN Climate Change pointed out this in their latest NDC Analysis Report. Unless the countries take stronger steps, the world cannot limit the temperature to 1.5°C by the end of the century, the UN said.
On the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres pointed out that the interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for the planet. He said that 2021 was a make or break year to confront the global climate emergency. He said that the world must cut global emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2010 levels.
The UN Chief asked the major emitters to step up more ambitious emissions reductions targets for 2030 in their Nationally Determined Contributions well before the November UN Climate Conference in Glasgow.
Stating that now was the time, he said that the global coalition committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 grew across governments, investors, businesses, cities, regions and civil society. He stressed that long term commitments must be matched by immediate actions to launch the decade of transformation that people and planet so desperately need.
The parties to Paris Agreement requested the report to measure the progress of national climate action plans called as NDCs — ahead of COP26 this November in Glasgow.
Meanwhile, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said that the report showed the present levels of climate ambition are very far from putting the globe on a pathway that will meet the Paris Agreement goals.
The report pointed out that majority of nations increased their individual levels of ambition to reduce emissions. However, their combined impact puts them on a path to achieve less than one per cent reduction by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.
Espinosa stated that the Report was only a “snapshot, not a full picture” of the NDCs. Covid 19 pandemic prevented several countries from submissions in 2020, she said.
She pointed out that 2021 gave the world an unprecedented opportunity to make significant progress on climate change. She asked the countries to build forward from Covid 19 with more sustainable and climate-resilient economies.
Incoming COP26 President Alok Sharma said that the report should serve as an urgent Call to Action. “We must recognise that the window for action to safeguard our planet is closing fast”, he said.
COP25 President Carolina Schmidt said that the Synthesis Report “clearly indicated that significant work must be done, in particular by major emitters”. Only 2 of the 18 largest emitters, the UK and the European Union, presented an updated NDC in 2020. The other major emitters either submitted NDCs presenting a very low increase in their ambition level or have not presented NDCs yet.
See the report here
