Despite all efforts, CO2 emissions continue to rise and the world is heading for global warming of 3°C.
The Emissions Gap Report 2023, released this Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme agency (UNEP), leaves no doubt: although the progress has been improving, it is too slow and, as a result, the planet could be up to three degrees warmer by 2100 if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues. This is well above the 1.5 degrees Celsius settled by the Paris Agreement.
Even so, the report concludes that progress has been made since the signing of the Paris Agreement: greenhouse gas emissions in 2030, based on current policies, were expected to increase by 16% at the time of the agreement’s adoption. Currently, the projected increase is 3%. However, greenhouse gas emissions forecast for 2030 still have to fall by 28% to follow the 2°C trajectory of the Paris Agreement and 42% for the 1.5°C target.
“Current trends are leading our planet towards a dead end of a 3°C temperature rise,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The report shows that the emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon. A canyon full of broken promises, broken lives and unachieved goals.”
World leaders will soon meet in Dubai for the annual UN climate summit, COP28, with the aim of keeping alive the 1.5ºC warming target set out in the Paris Agreement. Once again, António Guterres recalls the strength of this world meeting. “Voluntary initiatives and non-binding commitments can play an important role, but they are no substitute for a global response agreed by all, which must be in line with what science tells us is necessary,” he says.
Marta Cerqueira is from Minho and vegetarian. Luckily, she lives in Lisbon, where there is more tofu than sarrabulho. She has been a journalist for over 15 years, the last of which writing about food and sustainability. Now, out of the newsroom, she continues to write whenever she can, be it in magazines, journals, post its, or on her Instagram page, which she uses to share a life divided between being a mom-person-foodie-traveler. Still, she created Peggada so she could write about what doesn't fit in a magazine, journal, post it or Instagram: a better world.
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