Climate change mitigation needs more ambitious emissions reductions

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The collective climate targets submitted by Governments to the UN will lead to global emissions far above the levels needed to hold warming to below 2°C, researchers at the Climate Action Tracker warned today.

The analysis by the consortium of four research organisations was released today in Bonn where Governments are meeting for the second to last week of negotiations ahead of the Paris summit on climate action.
 

The collective climate targets submitted by Governments to the UN will lead to global emissions far above the levels needed to hold warming to below 2°C, researchers at the Climate Action Tracker warned today.

The analysis by the consortium of four research organisations was released today in Bonn where Governments are meeting for the second to last week of negotiations ahead of the Paris summit on climate action.

Around 65% of global emissions are covered by the “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDCs) submitted by 29 Governments as of 1 September 2015. The CAT has assessed 15 of these INDCs, covering64.5% of global emissions, and has rated seven as “inadequate,” six “medium” and only two - Ethiopia and Morocco - as “sufficient”.

The CAT analysis shows that in order to hold global warming below 2°C, governments need to significantly strengthen the INDCs they have submitted to date: they need to collectively reduce global emissions by a further 12-15 GtO2e by 2025, and 17-21 GtCO2e by 2030.

The projected emissions pathway from the combined INDCs also show a very different situation in 2025 than in 2030. If the current 2030 INDCs are locked in, holding warming below 2°C would become almost infeasible, as CO2 emission reduction rates would need to exceed 5% a year after 2030, and would make holding warming below 1.5°C almost impossible.

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Read more at ENN Affiliate, ClickGreen.