According to the UN, countries will have to increase their carbon-cutting ambitions five-fold if the world is to avoid warming by more than 1.5oC. The annual emissions gap report shows that even if all current promises are met, the world will warm by more than double that amount by 2100. The report says that richer countries have failed to cut emissions quickly enough, and that 15 of the 20 wealthiest nations have no timeline for a net zero target.
The emissions gap report looks at the difference between how much carbon needs to be cut to avoid dangerous warming - and where we are likely to end up with the promises that countries have currently committed to, in the Paris climate agreement.
The report says that emissions have gone up by 1.5% per year in the last decade. In 2018, the total reached 55 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is putting the Earth on course to experience a temperature rise of 3.2pC by the end of this century.
Just last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that allowing temperatures to rise more than 1.5 degrees this century would have hugely damaging effects for human, plant and animal life across the planet.
This report says that to keep this target alive, the world needs to cut emissions by 7.6% every year for the next 10 years.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50547073
