The latest international climate commitments to date are “very far” from meeting the Paris Agreement’s objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the UN climate agency warned on Wednesday.
“We are very far from the level and speed of emission reductions needed to put us on the path to a 1.5°C world,” warned Simon Stiell, head of UN Climate, at the occasion of the publication of a summary of the latest commitments of the signatory countries of the Paris agreement and less than two weeks before the opening of the world climate conference COP27.
On the contrary, the sum of the commitments of the 193 parties to the agreement, “could put the world on the path to a warming of 2.5°C by the end of the century,” underlines the UN agency.
The 2015 Paris Agreement sets the goal of containing global warming “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”, when humanity began to exploit the fossil fuels responsible for emissions on a large scale. of greenhouse gases, and if possible at 1.5°C.
At the last COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow, the signatories of the agreement had committed to review annually – instead of every five years – their commitments in the fight against emissions, called “nationally determined contribution”. (NDC).
But only 24 countries had submitted new or revised NDCs by the September 23 deadline, in time to be considered at COP27 to be held November 6-18 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. A “disappointing” figure, notes Mr. Stiell in a press release accompanying the publication of the new data.
“To keep this goal (of 1.5°C) alive governments must strengthen their plans now and implement them in the next eight years,” insists the UN official.
According to UN experts, global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, to meet this objective.
But according to the latest summary of the NDCs, the current commitments would on the contrary lead to a 10.6% increase in emissions over this period.