With window on limiting global warming closing fast, ‘urgent course correction’ is needed to speed up decarbonisation
- Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still ‘technically feasible’, but this requires ‘urgent course correction’, the State of Climate Action report says
- With progress falling woefully short across the board, leaders must pick up the pace and shift into emergency mode on decarbonisation, study says
The window to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent disastrous consequences from climate change is narrowing quickly due to “woefully” disappointing mitigation progress, according to a new report.
Achieving the goal is still “technically feasible”, but this requires “urgent course correction”, and that means global emissions have to peak by 2025, decline 43 per cent by 2030 and fall 60 per cent by 2035 from 2019 levels, said the State of Climate Action report published on Tuesday.
“This year only one of the 42 indicators of sectoral climate action assessed – the share of electric vehicles in passenger car sales – is on track to meet [the] 2030 target,” the report said. “Progress falls woefully short across the board.”
“Nearly halfway through this decisive decade, leaders must pick up the pace and shift into emergency mode. They must nurture rapid, non-linear growth, accelerate progress, and expand much-needed support to all sectors, especially those lagging furthest behind.”
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Globally, one in 10 cars sold last year was electric, up from 1.6 per cent in 2018, with sales growing at an average annual rate of 65 per cent, it noted.