This change is the result of a combination of technological, economic and political changes, says Bill Hare, a physicist and CEO of Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization that is part of the consortium. The cost of renewable energy technologies such as solar energy has fallen sharply. Economic growth has slowed. Regulations, especially in European countries, have begun to affect emissions. In Europe, emissions have fallen by 23% compared to 1990 levels in 2018. On Friday, EU leaders agreed on a plan to cut 55% by 2030. At the same time, progress on climate protection has not been fast enough. The Paris Agreement establishes a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and striving to limit it to 1.5°C. It also aims to strengthen the capacity of countries to cope with the effects of climate change and to support them in their efforts. When world leaders gather in Glasgow next week for a United Nations climate summit, the focus will be on one crucial figure: how many degrees warmer will the Earth be? And how can we keep that number as small as possible? The Paris Agreement is the first universal and legally binding global climate agreement adopted at the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December 2015. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions cannot happen overnight. Countries should use their short-term climate plans as stepping stones that can help them achieve a net-zero future. As countries around the world now reflect on how to cope with their economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, they can use this tipping point to accelerate investments in a low-carbon, inclusive and resilient economy to build a better future for all.
From wildfires in Australia and the western United States to this year`s record hurricane season, communities around the world continue to face devastating extreme weather events, many of which are exacerbated by the climate crisis. A lot of work awaits us. “There has been a real change in the last decade,” said Niklas Höhne, a German climatologist and founding partner of the NewClimate Institute, which developed the Climate Action Tracker. “You can say that progress has been too slow, that it`s still not enough, and I agree with all that. But we see a real movement. The answer depends on who you ask and how you measure emissions. Since the first climate negotiations in the 1990s, officials have debated which countries – developed or developing countries – are most to blame for climate change and should therefore reduce their emissions. However, it is not clear that the political will is there. For example, there are signs that many countries will not use the emission reductions caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to boost their climate ambitions. The world`s richest countries, the G20, have allocated $12 trillion to address the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, but only a quarter of donors are funding efforts to reduce carbon emissions, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme. “We`ve never had $10 trillion to $20 trillion spent over the next 24 months to revive the global economy,” Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, said at a news conference this week. “If we invest this in yesterday`s economy, we are essentially committing a mortal sin for our grandchildren.” When the Paris Agreement was signed, countries agreed that they should keep any global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and make a good faith effort to stay at 1.5 degrees.
But in the years that followed, a number of studies showed that 2 degrees of warming are much more harmful than 1.5 degrees. Many cities, businesses and organizations are considering reducing their emissions and responding to the UNFCCC`s call to become carbon neutral by the second half of the century. In the United States, more than six hundred local governments [PDF] have detailed climate action plans that include emissions reduction targets, despite the federal government`s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, investors are investing more money in climate-friendly funds. In early 2020, BlackRock, the world`s largest asset manager, announced that it would not invest in companies with severe climate risks. Large companies like Amazon and Starbucks have also committed to carbon neutrality. Some have gone even further by saying that they will be carbon negative, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than they release. .