The finding is not really good. “The world is not on track to achieve the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement,” concludes the first assessment of the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement, published Friday by the UN in 83 days of COP28. To limit warming to 1.5°C, the most ambitious limit of this historic agreement, CO2 emissions will have to reach a peak before 2025 and achieving carbon neutrality will require the development of renewable energies as well as the exit from all fossil fuels without CO2 capture, insists the report. To do this, countries around the world must do “much more, now, on all fronts”.
The interest of this new call to order, which draws on the voluminous and alarming scientific reports of the IPCC, is that it will constitute the indisputable basis of the bitter negotiations of the 28th UN climate conference, from November 30 to 12 December in the United Arab Emirates, announced as the largest COP ever convened, with the future of fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas at the heart of the discussions. It comes just as leaders of major G20 nations begin meeting in New Delhi, with little hope of making ambitious progress on the climate issue.
Already extreme events
This “assessment of global efforts to implement the Paris Agreement” – “Global stocktake” in UN jargon – is a long-awaited document, and the first exercise of its kind since the 2015 agreement. With already nearly 1.2°C of warming, the world is now experiencing extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and megafires which have ravaged various regions of the world this summer, the hottest ever measured on the globe. And are multiplied with each additional tenth of warming.
“There is a window which is rapidly closing to increase ambitions and implement existing commitments in order to limit warming to 1.5°C,” warns the report, which once again suggests increasing efforts in favor of finances, primarily to developing countries, the reduction of emissions and adaptation to climate change.
Achieving carbon neutrality will require profound transformations in all sectors and areas, “including the development of renewable energies and the exit from fossil fuels without CO2 capture,” he underlines. To achieve its goals, humanity must “reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels”, and achieve carbon neutrality. in 2050, recalls the report.