Across virtually every sector, the greening of the global economy is unfolding far too slowly to stave off climate catastrophe, according to a sobering report Wednesday from a consortium of research organizations.
Across virtually every sector, the greening of the global economy is unfolding far too slowly to stave off climate catastrophe, according to a sobering report Wednesday from a consortium of research organizations.
From power, industry and transport to food production, deforestation and finance, progress across 40 key indicators must accelerate dramatically—in many cases ten-fold or more—to stay in line with the Paris treaty goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Earth’s surface has already warmed 1.2C, enough to unleash a deadly and costly crescendo of climate-enhanced storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves.
In at least five areas those trend lines are still moving in the wrong direction entirely, according to the 200-page analysis, which comes 12 days ahead of crunch UN climate talks in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.
These include the share of natural gas in electricity generation, the share of kilometers traveled by passenger cars, and carbon pollution from agriculture.
“We are not winning in any sector,” said Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute, one of half-a-dozen climate policy think tanks that contributed to the report.
The findings, he said, are “an urgent wakeup call for decision-makers to commit to real transformation across every aspect of our economy”.
