2024 UN Emissions Gap Report
The world is currently heading towards a catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1C, a report from the UN environment programme (UNEP) has found.
As climate impacts intensify globally, the Emissions Gap Report 2024: No more hot air … please! finds that the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years unless nations deliver dramatically stronger ambition and action in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions.
The authors of the report say:
The world has lost too much time on inaction. The report shows that very large emission reduction opportunities still exist for 2030 and 2035, and some countries are already implementing them. Now is the moment for all actors to make a quantum leap in ambition and action… Every year that we wait adds to the damages that are already severe today. Equally every tonne of emission less will lead to less damages. The report shows again that the world has huge untapped potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And if the transition is organised in the right way, the world will be a better place than it is today with cheaper energy services, less air pollution, more access to energy and transport.
Their report says that countries’ current carbon-cutting promises for 2030 are not being met and even if they were met the temperature rise would only be limited to a still-disastrous 2.6C to 2.8C.
The report, published on 24 October 2024, is the 15th edition in a series that brings together many of the world’s top climate scientists to look at future trends in greenhouse gas emissions and provide potential solutions to the challenge of global warming.