The world is still on course for climate catastrophe

It is no news at all to say that the world is on course for climate catastrophe. We still face the threat of global warming to the planet, and should be aware of the need of climate change mitigation. For several years now many people (like me and fellow utopists) cry for actions to be taken to limit global warming and its related effects.

One would have expected that with the Paris Agreement of 2015 the leaders of the most important countries of the world would have kept to their promises and would have made work of it.

Ahead of the Cop26 summit a report has been published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) that says that countries’ latest climate plans would deliver just a tiny percentage of the emissions cuts needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The report warns of

“weak promises, not yet delivered”

just days before representatives of world governments gather for the key UN climate summit in Glasgow, which has been described as a “last-chance saloon” for the planet.

But UNEP, which analysed 121 countries’ progress on the climate, said that even the most up-to-date and ambitious plans have the world on track for an average 2.7°C temperature rise this century. (Slightly less than the 3C UNEP forecast in its last report.) A 30% cut is needed to limit warming to 2C and a 55% cut is needed to limit to 1.5C.

“As world leaders prepare for Cop26, this report is another thundering wake-up call,”

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said.

“How many do we need?”

UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said:

“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions.

“Eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts.

“The world has to wake up to the imminent peril we face as a species.”

We have to come to a worldwide agreement to utilise the resources carefully and to keep consumption of the resource sustainable. At the moment there are the rich countries where people just buy things and use things as if they can use everything they want without having to question how and where it is made or comes from.

It is good that there are meetings but after having put the heads together there have to come actions. We urgently need to come to an agreement about the management of the resources collectively, establishing regulations, monitoring and sanctions that apply to everyone. To privatise the resources in the expectation that each owner will then be incentivised to look after their share is the wrong position to take, and shall get the whole world deeper in the shit.

All world leaders should be aware that the biggest challenge facing humanity this century, is to bring the climate change to a halt.

A survey published by the European Investment Bank on Wednesday showed that of 27,700 survey respondents in the EU’s 27 countries, 58% said they believed their country would fail to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions by 2050. No wonder, many do not believe it anymore, that there shall change something drastically because, after all those debates about the growing pollution and global warming, not much has changed yet in the right direction.

The leaders should realise that when 81% of EU citizens agreed climate change was the biggest challenge humanity faces this century, and 75% said they were more concerned about the climate crisis than their governments, they better do much more about it to raise their popularity instead of a quibble over trifles and finicky things about less important matters.

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Preceding

• Air-conditioning treath and HFCs extremely powerful heat-trappers
• Are you serious?
• Cop26 presidency run from within the UK Cabinet Office
• Support Climate Legislation

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Additional reading

1. A map of the 90 corporations responsible for 63% of global carbon emissions since 1854
2. Health Ranger apocalypse warnings already given in 2012
3. A cry in the dark by scientists and medics
4. A dangerous turning point – Earth facing the collapse of everything
5. Postponing once more
6. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #1
7. 2015 Ecology
8. A Miracle of Unity at COP21
9. Natural capital in concept works. They know it, we know it, but how come it rarely translates at the coal-face of sustainable development?
10. Stopping emissions will not stop the warming of our planet
11. Africa’s human existence and development under threat from the adverse impacts of climate change
12. The European Union – the environmental challenges and your voice
13. Four ways to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously
14. June – July 2019
15. Streams caused by temperature differences
16. 155 million people across 55 territories suffering from severe food insecurity
17. EU well placed to protect and enhance citizens’ living standards while pursuing an ambitious transition to an environmentally sustainable economy
18. Stepping forward with public commitments for Making different sectors carbon neutral by 2050
19. Time for world to ‘grow up’ and tackle climate change, says Boris Johnson
20. The Climate Crisis and the Need for Utopian Thinking
21. G7 and Building Back Better
22. Strasbourg – Conference on the Future of Europe
23. Us and climate change – We can do much more than we think
24. Earth’s pandemic and T-shirts for young people

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Related

1. COP26 Is Upon Us.
2. Most Europeans think governments will miss climate goals, poll finds
3. Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it.
4. Why is the world warming up?
5. Visualizing Climate Change | Analog Atlas website
6. UN warns world set for 2.7C rise on current emissions pledges
7. Global Warming
8. Climate Change is Already Harming People across Canada
9. Global warming happening three times as fast in Sweden
10. How To Survive the Little Ice Age
11. Will it be a Fair COP?
12. JDC’s message for COP 26: Climate Justice rally
13. Scotland’s transport workers say their COP26 strike is about climate justice
14. Our urgent call to world leaders at COP26
15. COP26: Breakthrough Or Bust?
16. Play the health card: The case for climate & health justice at the UN Climate Talks
17. FRC warns over climate disclosures ahead of COP26 summit
18. Prepare to Critically Assess the Hype Around COP26
19. The EU climate deal | DW Documentary
20. G7 poised to lead the world towards clean electrification
21. Young climate activists have far more power than they realise
22. Net Zero – At what cost?