Why in news?
The emissions gap report of 2019 was released by the United Nations Environment programme(UNEP).
About the report:
- Also called the “Commitment Gap”, it is the difference between the low level of emissions that the world needs to drop to, compared with the projected level of emissions based on countries’ current commitments to decarbonization.
- Every year, the report looks at the expected size of the gap in 2030 and progress countries are making in closing it.
- It looks at different scenarios based on the pledges that countries made to reduce or minimize their emissions under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
The scenarios considered are:
- No climate policies since 2005 (baseline) – The baseline scenario estimates what would happen to global greenhouse gas emissions in the absence of any climate policies since 2005.
- Current policies only – The current policy scenario takes into account all of the policies now in place, but assumes that no additional measures are undertaken.
- The fulfillment of current unconditional NDCs – The unconditional NDC scenario assumes that countries meet all of the climate pledges that have no conditions attached.
- The fulfillment of NDCs with conditions attached – it is assumed that countries achieve all of their climate pledges, including those with conditions.
2019 report:
- G20 nations collectively account for 78 per cent of all emissions, but only five G20 members have committed to a long-term zero emissions target.
- In the short-term, developed countries will have to reduce their emissions quicker than developing countries, for reasons of fairness and equity.
- All nations must substantially increase ambition in their NDCs, as the Paris commitments are known, in 2020.
- The world will fail to meet the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent each year.
- Global temperatures are set to rise about 3.2 degrees C by 2100.
- The top four emitters (China, USA, EU and India) contributed to over 55% of the total emissions over the last decade, excluding emissions from land-use change such as deforestation.
