The Fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released earlier this year, is a sobering reminder that climate change is unequivocal, that it is essentially driven by human activity, and that it represents one of the biggest challenges of our time.
The risks of inaction are too high to be ignored, and the effects of global warming can already be felt in many aspects of human life.
Further to the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 and the Cancun agreements of 2010, over 90 countries have made voluntary pledges and commitments toward cutting their emission levels. However, despite these and related efforts, current pledges and commitments are not sufficient to keep the average rise in global temperature below 2° Celsius, compared to preindustrial levels: the associated “gap” in required emission reductions is growing, not closing.
Over the past four years the “emissions gap” series published by the United Nations Environment Programme has analysed the size of the gap and has provided insights on options to close it. This fifth report provides an updated measure of the emissions gap. In addition, this year’s update of the analysis calculates an emissions gap relative to expected emission levels in 2030, in recognition of the growing focus that action beyond 2020 is gaining in international climate change negotiations. Not least, the report provides an assessment of the carbon budget that is consistent with the 2° Celsius temperature target.
