GENEVA – Countries around the world are still far from being on the right track to limit climate change, making it harder for the United Nations to achieve its development goals, according to the latest report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), reported German news agency (dpa).
The United in Science report, which is the result of work by several UN organisations, reaffirms that the reductions in greenhouse gases that governments have planned to make so far are not enough to achieve the goals of the Paris climate deal.
This in turn will make it difficult to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The report shows how climate change and extreme weather affect these goals.
According to the 2015 Paris agreement, countries decided to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and preferably 1.5 degrees. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions would have to be reduced by 30 per cent or 45 per cent respectively, compared to 2010.
By 2050, only as much CO2 emissions should be emitted as can be offset.
However, CO2 emissions actually rose by 1 per cent year-on-year in 2022, the report says. From January to June of this year, the increase has probably already been 0.3 per cent, it said.
Current national pledges on CO2 emissions are likely to lead to an increase in global average temperature of 2.6 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels (1850-1900).
“Large-scale, rapid and systemic transformations” will be needed to make faster progress, the WMO report says, warning that that some changes in the global climate are unlikely to be reversible.
Currently, only 15 per cent of the 17 SDGs are on track, it says.
The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, and include ending hunger and poverty, providing education for all and using the environment and oceans sustainably. – Bernama
