UNITED NATIONS: With the 1.5\u00b0C temperature limit officially breaching, the UN has warned the world must slash emissions 18% by 2030 and 45% by 2035\u2014while sucking 320 billion tonnes of CO2 from the air\u2014just to reverse the peak by 2100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recommendation comes in the Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return, published on Wednesday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It outlines a \u201clowest possible\u201d overshoot scenario in which peak warming by roughly mid-century is limited to 1.7 to 1.8\u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Achieving this requires slashing emissions by 18 per cent by the end of the decade, 45 per cent by 2035, and 69 per cent five years later, compared with 2025 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOvershoot is not surrender,\u201d UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message accompanying the report. \u201cWe can still keep it as small and as short as possible \u2013 and bring temperatures back below 1.5 degrees by the end of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report argues that there are more opportunities than ever to step up action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which set the 1.5-degree target, renewable energy has boomed, total energy supply from coal and oil has grown slower than projected and climate policies have cut emissions in many places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen underscored the cost of inaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery additional fraction of a degree and additional year of warming above 1.5\u00b0C increases climate impacts and risks, such as the deadly floods, heatwaves and wildfires that have plagued many nations this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, we must pull out all the stops to minimize peak warming and return to 1.5\u00b0C by the end of the century\u201d, she added, stressing that \u201cthis is possible\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If current policies continue, warming could reach 2.8\u00b0C within this century and increase thereafter, the report warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to submit national climate action plans, or NDCs, and even if all are delivered and similar efforts continue, warming will be limited to 2.6\u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These outcomes are worse than last year\u2019s projections, the report said, due to the United States withdrawing from the climate deal and revised estimates of historical emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, new NDCs submitted since the last emissions report have hardly made a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, returning to or below the 1.5 threshold can be done, particularly as evidence increasingly shows how climate policies have reduced emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report calls for accelerating implementation of goals outlined during the first-ever Global Stocktake (GST) \u2013 a process held from 2021 to 2023 to assess collective progress towards achieving the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Shifting away from fossil fuels in energy systems<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Reducing non-CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, according to the report, progress across most of these goals remains insufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second GST \u2013 which begins next month at the UN COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkiye \u2013 can build on this by reaffirming priority mitigation action areas, extending quantified goals to 2035 and 2040, and making existing action areas more tangible through clearer and, where possible, quantified targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report sets out benchmarks that would have to be hit to be consistent with the lowest overshoot scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, extending the goal on transitioning from fossil fuels would require reducing the share of coal, oil and gas in total energy supply by at least 55, 15 and five per cent respectively by 2035, relative to 2025 figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reductions of at least 75, 30 and 35 per cent would be required in 2040, the report added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS: With the 1.5\u00b0C temperature limit officially breaching, the UN has warned the world must slash emissions 18% by 2030 and 45% by 2035\u2014while sucking 320 billion tonnes of CO2 from the air\u2014just to reverse the peak by 2100. The recommendation comes in the Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return, published on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n