Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
NEW YORK — Current international plans to cut carbon emissions will not stop the planet’s temperature rising above the 1.5 degree Celsius target before the end of this century, according to the U.N. Emissions Gap report, which says Earth will hit 2.7 degrees of warming unless humanity changes course drastically.
The report says to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees this century the world must halve annual greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years.
The BBC explains that as things stand around 50 countries have pledged to hit ‘net zero,’ balancing the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere, by 2050, and this could reduce projected temperature rises by 0.5 degrees, to 2.2 degrees, by the end of 2100.
However, this level of warming would still see “dramatic and deadly impacts”, and the report suggests two further problems with even those seemingly ambitious targets: First, the plans are quite vague, particularly in the world’s 20 richest countries.
And second, many of the plans postpone significant emissions cuts until after 2030, which makes it extremely difficult to imagine them delivering net zero just 20 years later.
The report does contain recommendations about how emissions could be rapidly reduced, including explaining how methane emissions, the second-largest source of warming, could be curbed at low or no cost.
However, it is critical of COVID stimulus packages, finding that only around 20 percent of recovery investments will support renewables and the green economy.
NEW YORK — Current international plans to cut carbon emissions will not stop the planet’s temperature rising above the 1.5 degree Celsius target before the end of this century, according to the U.N. Emissions Gap report, which says Earth will hit 2.7 degrees of warming unless humanity changes course drastically.
The report says to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees this century the world must halve annual greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years.
The BBC explains that as things stand around 50 countries have pledged to hit ‘net zero,’ balancing the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere, by 2050, and this could reduce projected temperature rises by 0.5 degrees, to 2.2 degrees, by the end of 2100.
However, this level of warming would still see “dramatic and deadly impacts”, and the report suggests two further problems with even those seemingly ambitious targets: First, the plans are quite vague, particularly in the world’s 20 richest countries.
And second, many of the plans postpone significant emissions cuts until after 2030, which makes it extremely difficult to imagine them delivering net zero just 20 years later.
The report does contain recommendations about how emissions could be rapidly reduced, including explaining how methane emissions, the second-largest source of warming, could be curbed at low or no cost.
However, it is critical of COVID stimulus packages, finding that only around 20 percent of recovery investments will support renewables and the green economy.
