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2023-11-23
As the threat from the global climate crisis looms larger, a United Nations report has highlighted the urgent needs to increase climate actions and beef up climate support from rich nations to developing countries.
Released on Monday ahead of the two-week-long COP28 UN climate change conference, which will kick off late this month in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, the Emissions Gap Report 2023 said countries' current pledges under the Paris Agreement would put the world on track for a 2.5 to 2.9 C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels this century.
The agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to limit the global average temperature increase to 2 C, while pursuing efforts to cap it at 1.5 C and progress has been made, according to the report, which was compiled by the UN Environmental Programme.
In 2015, greenhouse gas emissions were projected to increase by 16 percent in 2030, it said, but the latest estimates put the figure at just 3 percent.
The report said, however, that predicted 2030 greenhouse gas emissions still must fall by 28 percent for the Paris Agreement's 2 C pathway and 42 percent for the 1.5 C pathway.
Fully implementing efforts implied by parties' current unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), would put the world on track to limiting the temperature rise to 2.9 C, it said. Full implementation of conditional NDCs would lead to a temperature rise of no more than 2.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
NDCs are climate action pledges made by parties under the Paris treaty. But the commitments of some countries are contingent on a range of possible conditions, such as the ability of national legislatures to enact the necessary laws, ambitious action from other countries, realization of finance and technical support, or other factors.
According to UNEP, the world has already experienced remarkable temperature increases.
It said that this year, until the beginning of October, 86 days were recorded with temperatures over 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. September was the hottest month ever recorded, with global average temperatures 1.8 C above pre-industrial levels, it said.
The report called for all nations to accelerate economy-wide, low-carbon development transformations, and also urged the provision of more affordable climate finance assistance to developing economies.
"Decarbonizing energy systems in low- and middle-income countries requires mobilizing capital at an unprecedented scale," it said. "Without affordable external climate finance assistance, the majority of low- and middle-income countries will struggle to achieve their development objectives and reduce emissions."
Annual global clean energy investment now stands at $1.3 trillion, and is projected to rise to $2 trillion by 2030. But the report said that while low- and middle-income countries account for two-thirds of the global population, they receive only a fifth of all energy transition investments.
Energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries are impeded by nominal financing costs up to seven times higher than those in the United States and Europe, it added.
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