UN: No Credible Path to 1.5°C Carbon Emissions Reduction Target

As growing climate change impacts are experienced across the globe, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has said as of today, there’s no credible pathway to achieving the 1.5°c carbon emissions target.

In a new report, “Emissions Gap Report 2022”, the body stated that  the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall is unambiguous, explaining that findings have shown that the international community is falling far short of the Paris goals.

It stated that with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place, only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid climate disaster.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently set a 2050 goal for Nigeria to meet the NetZero target for the country, although for a country that depends almost solely on hydrocarbons sale for its foreign exchange earnings,  it remains to be seen how this will be achieved.

The report showed that updated national pledges since COP26 – held in 2021 in Glasgow, UK – make a negligible difference to predicted 2030 emissions and that the world is far from the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C.

“Policies currently in place point to a 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century. Implementation of the current pledges will only reduce this to a 2.4-2.6°C temperature rise by the end of the century, for conditional and unconditional pledges respectively.

“The report finds that only an urgent system-wide transformation can deliver the enormous cuts needed to limit greenhouse gas emissions by 2030: 45 per cent compared with projections based on policies currently in place to get on track to 1.5°C and 30 per cent for 2°C,” it stated.

The UN body stated that the report provides an in-depth exploration of how to deliver the transformation, looking at the required actions in the electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, and the food and financial systems.