Recently the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released the Emissions Gap Report 2021.
It is a report issued annually. This report provides an overview of the gap between projected greenhouse gas emissions for the year 2030 and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions needed to prevent the most adverse effects of climate change from occurring.
Key Conclusions:
- New or updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and announced commitments for 2030 have had only a limited impact on global emissions and the emissions gap in 2030. This is expected to reduce the estimated emissions for the year 2030 by only 7.5 percent.
- If this difference persists throughout this century, it will result in a rise in temperature of 2.7 °C. This is only slightly lower than the 3 °C forecast made in the previous UNEP report.
- Limiting heating to 2 °C requires a 30% reduction in emissions, and limiting heating to 1.5 °C requires a reduction of 55%.
- Current net zero targets could limit global warming to about 22 °C by the end of the century.
- Reducing methane emissions from the fossil fuel, waste and agricultural sectors can help fill emissions gaps and reduce warming in the short term.
- The year 2020 saw an unprecedented 5.4 percent drop in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from global fossil sources due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A broadly opposite trend is expected in emissions in 2021.
Source – The Hindu
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