ICYMI
Climate policy stagnating in countries across the globe, NGOs warn
2023/12/08
Climate policy stagnating in countries across the globe, NGOs warn
2023/12/08
Climate activists hold signs reading "End Fossil Fuels" during a protest at the EXPO site in Dubai. The main topics at this year's UN Climate Change Conference include financing for the damage caused by climate change.
Hannes P. Albert/dpa
The world is no closer to reaching the climate goals outlined in the 2015 Paris agreement, despite a boom in renewable energy, environmental organizations reported on Friday.
Until there is a drastic decline in fossil fuel use, global emissions cannot be halved by 2030 as aimed for, the NGOs Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute report.
In their yearly assessment, the organizations reviewed the climate policies of 63 countries as well as the European Union, together responsible for more than 90% of global emissions.
"For the first time, not a single country ranks 'high' in the category climate policy," said co-author Niklas Höhne of the NewClimate Institute.
Even Denmark, which leads the rankings, appears to be further away from the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed upon during the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris.
Brazil and Vietnam have shown the most progress, while Italy and Britain are falling behind. Major polluters China and the United States continued to perform poorly.
Brazil saw significant improvement, catapulting from 38th to 23rd place year-on-year after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office.
Unsurprisingly, oil producing countries, including the host of the COP28 climate conference the United Arab Emirates, rank at the bottom.
Höhne appealed to countries to "switch to emergency mode."
"Emissions must be almost halved worldwide by 2030 in order to avoid an escalation of the climate crisis," he said.
Jan Burck, one of the study's authors, emphasized that the COP28 conference plays a "crucial role" in getting countries to multiply their climate efforts. He called for a tripling of renewable energy capacity, a doubling of energy efficiency and a drastic reduction of coal, oil and gas before 2030.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
The world is no closer to reaching the climate goals outlined in the 2015 Paris agreement, despite a boom in renewable energy, environmental organizations reported on Friday.
Until there is a drastic decline in fossil fuel use, global emissions cannot be halved by 2030 as aimed for, the NGOs Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute report.
In their yearly assessment, the organizations reviewed the climate policies of 63 countries as well as the European Union, together responsible for more than 90% of global emissions.
"For the first time, not a single country ranks 'high' in the category climate policy," said co-author Niklas Höhne of the NewClimate Institute.
Even Denmark, which leads the rankings, appears to be further away from the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed upon during the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris.
Brazil and Vietnam have shown the most progress, while Italy and Britain are falling behind. Major polluters China and the United States continued to perform poorly.
Brazil saw significant improvement, catapulting from 38th to 23rd place year-on-year after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office.
Unsurprisingly, oil producing countries, including the host of the COP28 climate conference the United Arab Emirates, rank at the bottom.
Höhne appealed to countries to "switch to emergency mode."
"Emissions must be almost halved worldwide by 2030 in order to avoid an escalation of the climate crisis," he said.
Jan Burck, one of the study's authors, emphasized that the COP28 conference plays a "crucial role" in getting countries to multiply their climate efforts. He called for a tripling of renewable energy capacity, a doubling of energy efficiency and a drastic reduction of coal, oil and gas before 2030.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
2023/12/05
Smoke billows from the chimney of the Schkopau lignite-fired power plant.
Jan Woitas/dpa/dpa-tmn
Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are predicted to reach a new record of 36.8 billion tons this year, according to findings published in the Global Carbon Budget on Tuesday by the University of Exeter in Britain.
The data is compiled annually by a team of more than 120 experts, led by Pierre Friedlingstein of the university's Global Systems Institute.
The 2023 figure is up 1,1% up on the previous year and 1.4% higher than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
The effects of climate change were apparent everywhere, while the measures for cutting emissions from fossil fuels remained "painfully slow," Friedlingstein said.
CO2 levels in the air have now reached an average 419.3 parts per million (ppm), up 51% on the level in 1750 before the start of the industrial era.
The 1.5-degree target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord would inevitably be breached, said one of the lead authors, Julia Pongratz of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
She pointed to evidence from recent years of the drastic consequences of climate change. Every tenth of a degree counted, Pongratz said.
The remaining carbon budget available to ensure a 50% chance of staying within the Paris target will be used up in seven years, based on current emissions levels, the authors predicted.
Based on their computer models, the authors have found that India emitted 8.2% more CO2 from fossil fuels this year than in 2022 and now exceeds total EU emissions. China, which is responsible for 31% of all CO2 emissions, emitted 4% more than it did last year.
By contrast, the United States, which is responsible for 14% of global CO2 emissions, cut its emissions by 3% over the year, and the EU cut its emissions by 7.4%.
The rest of the world is also showing a marginally positive trend, with a reduction of 0.4%.
Emissions from land-use change, especially deforestation, have shown a "small but uncertain decline" over the past two decades, according to the report.
The highest net CO2 emissions from land-use change for the period 2013-22 were from Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which together contributed 55% of the global net land-use change in emissions.
"Emissions from permanent deforestation remain too high to be offset by current CO2 removals from reforestation and afforestation," the report concluded.
The report for the first time notes reductions in atmospheric CO2 through technical measures, such as carbon capture and storage, which currently come to just 0.01 megatons. "This is more than a million times smaller than current fossil CO2 emissions," it said.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are predicted to reach a new record of 36.8 billion tons this year, according to findings published in the Global Carbon Budget on Tuesday by the University of Exeter in Britain.
The data is compiled annually by a team of more than 120 experts, led by Pierre Friedlingstein of the university's Global Systems Institute.
The 2023 figure is up 1,1% up on the previous year and 1.4% higher than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
The effects of climate change were apparent everywhere, while the measures for cutting emissions from fossil fuels remained "painfully slow," Friedlingstein said.
CO2 levels in the air have now reached an average 419.3 parts per million (ppm), up 51% on the level in 1750 before the start of the industrial era.
The 1.5-degree target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord would inevitably be breached, said one of the lead authors, Julia Pongratz of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
She pointed to evidence from recent years of the drastic consequences of climate change. Every tenth of a degree counted, Pongratz said.
The remaining carbon budget available to ensure a 50% chance of staying within the Paris target will be used up in seven years, based on current emissions levels, the authors predicted.
Based on their computer models, the authors have found that India emitted 8.2% more CO2 from fossil fuels this year than in 2022 and now exceeds total EU emissions. China, which is responsible for 31% of all CO2 emissions, emitted 4% more than it did last year.
By contrast, the United States, which is responsible for 14% of global CO2 emissions, cut its emissions by 3% over the year, and the EU cut its emissions by 7.4%.
The rest of the world is also showing a marginally positive trend, with a reduction of 0.4%.
Emissions from land-use change, especially deforestation, have shown a "small but uncertain decline" over the past two decades, according to the report.
The highest net CO2 emissions from land-use change for the period 2013-22 were from Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which together contributed 55% of the global net land-use change in emissions.
"Emissions from permanent deforestation remain too high to be offset by current CO2 removals from reforestation and afforestation," the report concluded.
The report for the first time notes reductions in atmospheric CO2 through technical measures, such as carbon capture and storage, which currently come to just 0.01 megatons. "This is more than a million times smaller than current fossil CO2 emissions," it said.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
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