World ‘sliding from climate crisis to climate disaster’

(China Dialogue, 2 Nov 2022) Planned climate action shows ‘no credible pathway’ to keep warming within 1.5C, leaving rapid societal transformation the only option, UN says.

Current emissions reduction plans will lead to an average global temperature rise of 2.4–2.6C by 2100, far above the 1.5–2C limit agreed upon by governments in Paris seven years ago, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

A new report by UNEP outlines its annual assessment of commitments made by governments towards meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement. These “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) spell out each country’s emissions reduction targets and how they intend to achieve them. The plans remain “woefully inadequate”, it concluded.

Fourteen countries have submitted new or updated NDCs since the last UN climate talks at COP26 in Glasgow 12 months ago, in addition to the 152 that did so in the months preceding that event. Relative to the first round of NDCs, a larger share of plans included targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and a greater number of economic sectors and greenhouse gases were included, UNEP said.

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China Dialogue, 2 Nov 2022: World ‘sliding from climate crisis to climate disaster’