Climate action has stalled

Climate Action Tracker said in a mid-year report for 2022 that climate action has stalled. The summary of the report says: “Despite the clear warning on the extreme dangers of exceeding 1.5°C warming from the IPCC, progress on new, more ambitious 2030 climate targets and participation in sectoral initiatives have stalled since COP26 in Glasgow. This goes against the clear agreement of the Glasgow Pact to update national 2030 climate targets in 2022. Without increased government action, the world will still emit twice the greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 than is allowed under the 1.5°C limit of the Paris Agreement. The world is heading to a warming of 2.4°C with 2030 targets and even higher, 2.7°C, with current policies. With this looming emissions gap in 2030, it is important that all governments revisit and strengthen their climate targets.

It is not enough for them to make marginal or no improvements. If the EU, the USA and China were to increase their NDC values by 5 to 10 percentage points, this would only narrow the 17–20 GtCO₂e gap by a further 3–4 GtCO₂e or around 20%. The EU would be the primary candidate for being the first large country to update its NDC, as the agreement to increase the renewable target would lead to overachievement of the NDC. Governments need to take several steps to update their climate targets in 2022. Ultimately, they need to submit a full updated NDC with a more ambitious target. Along the way they can participate in new sectoral initiatives and/or implement additional national policies, whose effect goes well beyond the originally proposed target – and then officially submit this information to the UNFCCC.”

Link to report: https://climateactiontracker.org/documents/1051/CAT_2022-06-03_Briefing_...