08.11.2022
World on the brink of ’irreversible’ climate change — UN
Photo by: Mostafa Gholamnejad / iStock
The world is close to climate change, which could be “irreversible”. Three reports from United Nations agencies are devoted to the topic at once, The Guardian reports.
According to the studies, global carbon emissions are scheduled to fall by around 50% by 2030 in order to keep global warming to within 1.5 °C. But reports show that emissions continue to rise and oil and gas giants are making huge sums of money from fossil fuels.
As it became known at the end of October, Shell and TotalEnergies doubled their profits in the last quarter, earning about $10 billion each.
The sector is expected to accumulate $4 trillion in 2022, reinforcing public calls for high taxes to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and finance the transition to clean energy.
A report by the UN environment agency says there is no credible way to limit global warming to within 1.5 °C because of a “woefully inadequate” process to reduce carbon emissions.
The agency’s experts concluded that even if existing pledges to reduce greenhouse emissions were fully implemented by 2030, the average global temperature would rise by about 2.5 °C, leading to catastrophic changes.
The UN Meteorological Agency reported that emissions of all major greenhouse gases reached an all-time high in 2021. Of particular concern was the surge in methane emissions, as methane is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in its ability to retain heat.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels could peak by 2025 as high energy prices push countries to switch to clean energy sources. At the same time, the IEA warns that the transition to green energy is not happening fast enough to avoid serious climate impacts.
The energy crisis must be used to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, says Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme.
In addition to the findings of key UN agency reports, additional research emerged in late October showing that global health depends on fossil fuel emissions as they are linked to anthropogenic climate change, leading to more deaths from heat waves, hunger and infectious diseases.
Cover photo: primeimages / iStock
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