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The corona pandemic has caused a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, but that is not enough, warns the UN. And he advises to do away with fossil fuels quickly.
Shortly before the UN climate summit in New York, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) called for more efforts in the fight against global warming. Despite the decline in greenhouse gas emissions caused by the corona pandemic and international climate commitments, global warming is heading for more than three degrees by the end of the century, Unep said in its annual report published on Wednesday. Without a rapid move away from fossil fuels, the goals of the Paris climate agreement of almost five years can no longer be achieved.
The Paris Agreement of December 12, 2015 states that global warming will be limited to less than two degrees, but if possible to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. Meanwhile, according to the UN, average temperatures on Earth have already risen by about 1.2 degrees. The goal of the New York Summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on Saturday is to force states to do more.
Emissions would have to fall by more than 7 percent annually
To achieve the more ambitious 1.5 degree temperature target, emissions would have to fall 7.6 percent annually by 2030, according to UNEP. This year, due to the Corona crisis, a seven percent decrease in CO2 emissions is expected. Without a rapid and complete move away from fossil fuels, the effects of this decline would be “negligible,” warned Unep. This means that global warming can only be limited by 0.01 degrees by 2050.
According to UNEP, the five years since the signing of the Paris Agreement were the warmest on record. Already today, global warming is causing more severe and frequent droughts, forest fires and storms.
An ecologically sustainable reconstruction is required
Unep chief Inger Andersen called on states for ecologically sustainable reconstruction after the Corona crisis. This could “curb a large part of greenhouse gas emissions and help curb climate change,” he said. Consequently, expected emissions by 2030 could be reduced by up to 25 percent in this way.
However, to do this, states would have to shift more to renewables, support emission-free technologies and infrastructure, cut fossil fuel subsidies, refrain from approving new coal-fired power plants and reforest forests, the report says. However, experts believe that carbon dioxide emissions will rise again in 2021 as inevitable.
“The pandemic is a warning”
“The pandemic is a warning that we urgently need to abandon our path of destructive growth that is driving the three global crises: climate change, loss of biodiversity and environmental pollution,” said the head of Unep. “But it is also a clear opportunity to protect our climate and nature for decades to come.”
According to the Unep report, 59.1 gigatons of CO2 equivalents were released in 2019, 2.6 percent more than the previous year. The increase was largely due to an increase in wildfires, according to the report. The richest one percent of the world’s population produces more than twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 percent.
