Climate plans falling 'miles short' of what is needed to prevent global warming from 'wrecking lives', UN warns
28 October 2024, 15:30 | Updated: 28 October 2024, 15:32
Climate plans are "falling miles short" of what is needed to stop global warming from “wrecking billions of lives”, the United Nations has warned.
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The current national plans submitted to the UN could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6% from 2019 to 2030, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.
The body said this figure is only "only a fraction" of what is "urgently needed" given emissions should decrease by 43% by 2030 in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, according to UN climate scientists.
The UNFCCC also said the current plans represent only “marginal progress” from the same annual report last year when 2030 emissions were forecast to be 2.0% lower than in 2019.
This comes after the UN Environment Programme found the chances of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels were "virtually zero".
UNFCCC chief Simon Stiell said: "Current national climate plans fall miles short of what's needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy, and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country.
"Much bolder new national climate plans cannot only avert climate chaos," he said, but can also generate "stronger investment, economic growth and opportunity, more jobs, less pollution, better health and lower costs, more secure and affordable clean energy".
Updated climate plans - known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - are due by February and will map out measures up to 2035.
The UK government has pledged to submit its updated NDC in November, at the UN climate summit COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan but today's warning puts more pressure on countries to come up with an ambitious agreement for the conference.
The key issue on the table is finance for developing nations to help them ditch fossil fuels and cope with climate impacts.
Greenpeace UK's policy director Dr Doug Parr said floods and hurricanes are "devastating lives and livelihoods around the world in real time".
These impacts, along with today's news, paint a "terrifying picture for the fate of humanity" and should give a "slap in the face" to governments, he said.
"Now is the moment for real leadership from the heads of the global community.”
On Saturday, the Climate Change Committee - the UK's climate advisers - warned the new plan should commit to slashing greenhouse gases by 81% in 2035, compared with 1990 levels.
Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the CCC, said this was feasible with today's technology.
The UK’s emissions have peaked and are now falling while global emissions are expected to peak before 2030.
Last year their levels in the atmosphere hit a new record high, the UN's weather body said today in a separate report.
