The annual Emissions Gap Report released by the United Nations has revealed a shocking fact that the countries’ current emissions pledges to limit climate change would still put the world on track to warm by nearly 3 degrees Celsius this century. According to the report, countries’ promises to tackle climate change compared with what is needed, find the world faces between 2.5C and 2.9C of warming above pre industrial levels if governments do not boost climate action. At 3C of warming, scientists predict the world could pass several catastrophic points of no return, from the runaway melting of ice sheets to the Amazon rainforest drying out. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that present trends are racing our planet down a dead-end, as the emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon.
Global warming has become an existential risk for the human being and other living organisms because of rapid increase in temperature and Global greenhouse gas emissions rose by 1.2% from 2021 to 2022, reaching a record 57.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide or equivalent. Historically, the world nations could not upheld their voluntary pledges to bend the emission curve downward. So far, all of the international agreements and the majority of the meetups of the global leaders failed to reduce the rate of decarbonization despite the fact the global community aimed to curb the carbon dioxide emission to zero.
Interestingly, the global climate change agenda fell victim to the mutual blame game and the tendency to persuade others to act first. So far, the major carbon emitters including China, India, the United States, Russia,Japan and others failed to achieve their pledges in respect of phasing out fossil fuel plants and refused to accept liability for damage caused by extreme weather conditions.
The recent assessment reports on emission is an eye opener for the world nations who are scheduled for the next Climate Change Summit (COP-28) in Dubai. In fact, it is of utmost importance that the member nations uphold their individual responsibility under the Paris Accord without pointing fingers to their colleagues. This world is currently moving toward complete enhaliation and all have to push it away from an imminent collapse through collective efforts and team work by lowering the temperature below the 1.5C, that is the only way forward for all human beings in this universe.
