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 ».
