While the United Nations recently released a report showing that the world is at growing risk of hitting 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming in the 2030s, no major country has submitted plans to mitigate the rising temperatures.
The temperature threshold would ignite what experts consider "extreme events unprecedented in the observational record." The Paris Climate Agreement aimed to maintain the 1.5-degree threshold. But the report released last month said it would be impossible without severe reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Based on data, experts believe the world will surpass the threshold within 80 years.
Worsening Effects of Climate Change
Scientists believe that if countries around the globe made dramatic reductions in their emissions, the goal would be achieved much sooner. However, experts said that such a scenario was highly unlikely based on an analysis of 37 countries by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), a watchdog organization, on Wednesday.
The report noted that amid people worldwide suffering from worsening effects of global warming, and the IPCC's presentation of the feasibility and urgency of climate change mitigation, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions lag behind what is needed. In nearly all countries and sectors, the goals are not being met for the 2030 targets, with the gap barely changing, CBS News reported.
Many G20 countries, including 19 countries and the European Union, account for more than 80% of the world's GDP and 60% of the global population. These nations have reportedly failed to meet their obligations based on the analysis.
CAT said that only Gambia, a small West African country, has a plan under the Paris agreement, while the United Kingdom is the only one of the G20 countries with "almost sufficient" plans. The agency based its rankings on each country's mitigation targets, policies and action, and climate action.
This has forced the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to call on other nations on Thursday for "immediate, rapid, and large-scale" reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. He warned international governments that climate change is worsening faster than experts have previously predicted, with fossil fuel bouncing back since dipping in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
Plans to Mitigate Rising Temperatures
The report also showed that two G20 countries had "critically insufficient" plans, nine nations had "highly insufficient" plans, and four, including the United States, had "insufficient" plans. The CAT said that they did not include France, Italy, and Turkey in the report because they did not submit new documents for their plans.
But in a recent report, the United States and the European Union have agreed to try and reduce emissions of gas methane by about a third by 2030. Federal governments of both nations have urged other chief economies to join them in their plans.
The agreement between the two major countries came as Washington and Brussels urged other economies to address climate change ahead of a world summit that would address the issue. The event is scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, later in November, Aljazeera reported.
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