Vulnerable countries are stepping up and taking climate action, amid a slow response from some of the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday.
Unless wealthy nations commit to tackling emissions now, the world is on a “catastrophic pathway” to 2.7-degrees of heating by the end of the century, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on Friday.
Methane emissions caused by human activity can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade, thus helping to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a UN-backed report published on Thursday.
Even if countries meet commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is heading for a 3.2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise over pre-industrial levels, leading to even wider-ranging and more destructive climate impacts, warns a report from the UN Environment Programme, released on Tuesday.
Additional action to slowdown global warming is needed at all levels of society, to avoid climate “disaster”.
That’s according to Shereen Zorba, Global Head of Science-Policy networks at the UN Environment Programme, UNEP.
“Everyone is responsible” for moving the climate change agenda forward following last month’s historic agreement in Paris.
That’s the view of Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, widely accepted to be the author of the whole “sustainable development” concept.
More than 190 countries agreed to limit global temperature rises due to emissions to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
The first female Prime Minster of Norway is now UN Foundation Board Vice Chair, and she was awarded the Zayed Future Energy Prize 2016 on Tuesday.
