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The climate conference which opens Thursday in the United Arab Emirates, COP28, is being held eight years after the conference which allowed, in 2015, the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The global meeting to fight the climate crisis must therefore be an opportunity to take stock of this agreement.
However, a technical report published at the beginning of September highlighted the fact that, despite the commitments of the 196 parties who adopted the agreement in 2015, the world is still very far from doing what is necessary to limit the increase in global temperatures.
“While action continues, much remains to be done on all fronts,” the report summarizes. In particular, “developing renewable energies and phasing out all fossil fuels without CO2 capture are essential elements of a just energy transition towards carbon neutrality,” underlines the summary.
Concretely, humanity must “reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 and by 60% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels”, and achieve carbon neutrality at the latest in 2050, also recalls the report.
Currently, however, climate commitments boil down to a reduction in emissions of just 2% by the end of the decade. As for warming, it is on a particularly dangerous trajectory ranging from 2.5°C to 2.9°C over the course of the century, indicated last week a United Nations report published in anticipation of the COP28. The most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit warming to 1.5°C, a limit that risks being exceeded within 10 years.
In this context, the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, pleaded Monday for a burst of ambition in order to avoid the “climate chaos” predicted by science. “Leaders must not let the hopes of people around the world for a sustainable planet melt away. They must make COP28 count,” he insisted, once again calling for an end to the “era of fossil fuels”.
“The solutions are well known,” added Mr. Guterres. “We need a global commitment to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, and bring clean energy to all by 2030.” He at the same time invited developed countries to commit to in favor of a “major increase in investments for adaptation and for loss and damage, to protect populations from climate extremes”.