Underwater rocks emerge from the water of Lake Garda after northern Italy experienced the worst drought in 70 years in Sirmione, Italy. /Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters
As climate impacts across the globe continue to intensify, many more drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed.
A new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report has found that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris Agreement goals, with no credible pathway to limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius in place.
The Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window – Climate crisis calls for rapid transformation of societies and finds that urgent sector and system-wide transformations – in the electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, and the food and financial systems – would help to avoid climate disaster.
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"This report tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us, all year, through deadly floods, storms and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gasses, and stop doing it fast," said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
"We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster."
Inadequate progress
The report finds, despite a decision by all countries at the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow, UK (COP26) to strengthen Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and some updates from nations, progress has been woefully inadequate.
NDCs submitted this year cover only 0.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, less than one percent of projected global emissions in 2030.
Residents wade through flood water in Obagi community, Rivers state, Nigeria. /Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
This lack of progress leaves the world moving towards a temperature rise far above the Paris Agreement goal of well below two degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Current policies alone would lead to a 2.8 degrees Celsius hike, highlighting the temperature implications of the gap between promises and action.
In response to the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on Twitter that the findings make it clear, "we are headed for economy-destroying levels of global heating. We need #ClimateAction on all fronts – and we need it now. We must close the emissions gap before catastrophe closes in on us all."
'A tall and impossible order'
To meet the Paris Agreement goals, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gasses by unprecedented levels over the next eight years. Such massive cuts mean that rapid systemic transformation is required.
The report explores how to deliver part of this transformation in key sectors and systems.
"It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try," said Andersen. "Every fraction of a degree matters: to vulnerable communities, to species and ecosystems, and to every one of us."
"Even if we don't meet our 2030 goals, we must strive to get as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"This means setting up the foundations of a net-zero future: one that will allow us to bring down temperature overshoots and deliver many other social and environmental benefits, like clean air, green jobs and universal energy access." he added.
The report finds that the transformation towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is underway, but needs to move much faster.
In this file photo, solar collectors stand at the Solana Generating Station in Gila Bend, Arizona, U.S. /Joshua Lott/Reuters
To advance the transformation, all sectors need to avoid new fossil fuel-intensive infrastructure, advance zero-carbon technology and apply it, and pursue behavioral changes.
In the UK, 100 universities have pledged to divest from fossil fuels, according to The Guardian newspaper.
This accounts for 65 percent of the UK's higher education sector refusing to make at least some investments in fossil fuel firms, and endowments worth more than £20.4 billion now out of reach for the corporations.
Decarbonization of food systems and a low-emissions economy
Focus areas for food systems, which account for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions, include protection of natural ecosystems, demand-side dietary changes, improvements in food production at the farm level and decarbonization of food supply chains.
Action in these four areas can reduce projected 2050 food system emissions to around a third of current levels, as opposed to emissions almost doubling if current practices are continued.
Moreover, a global transformation to a low-emissions economy is expected to require investments of at least $4 trillion to $6 trillion a year.
Most financial actors, despite stated intentions, have shown limited action on climate mitigation because of short-term interests, conflicting objectives and not recognizing climate risks adequately.
Governments and key financial actors will need to steer credibly in one direction: a transformation of the financial system and its structures and processes, engaging governments, central banks, commercial banks, institutional investors and other financial actors.