Emissions Gap Report 2022 of UNEP

Context

  • The UNEP report released, titled ‘Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window Climate Crisis Calls For Rapid Transformation of Societies’, has found that in India and six other top emitters, emissions have rebounded and increased after the pandemic.

  • The report is the 13th edition in an annual series that provides an overview of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avert the worst impacts of climate change.

Key Findings

  • The world is falling short of the goals set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2015, and that no credible pathway is currently in place to restrict global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Emissions Gap Report 2022
  • The Paris Agreement defined 2°C above pre-industrial levels as the global warming limit, which if breached, can lead to extreme weather events such as extreme heat waves, droughts, water stress and others that can significantly impact lives. The UNEP report says that unless unprecedented action is taken, global warming is on course to breach this mark.
  • The top seven emitters (China, the EU27, India, Indonesia, Brazil, the Russian Federation and the United States of America) plus international transport accounted for 55 per cent of global GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in 2020. Collectively, G20 members are responsible for 75 per cent of global GHG emissions.
  • The global average per capita GHG emissions was 6.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) in 2020.
  • The US remains far above this level at 14 tCO2e, followed by Russia at 13 tCO2e, China at 9.7 tCO2e, Brazil and Indonesia at about 7.5 tCO2e, and the European Union at 7.2 tCO2e.
  • India remains far below the world average at 2.4 tCO2e. “For most major emitters, including China, India, the Russian Federation, Brazil and Indonesia, GHG emissions (excluding land use and forestry sectors) rebounded in 2021, exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
  • The G20 countries have just started to work on meeting their new targets, and collectively, are expected to fall short of their promises for 2030.
  • The current policies will lead to a 2.8°C temperature rise by 2100. Implementation of current climate pledges will only reduce this to a 2.4 to 2.6°C temperature rise by the end of this century.
  • GHG emissions must be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. However, the report shows that the emissions are at dangerous and record-high levels and are still rising.
  • The report recommends actions in specific six sectors like electricity supply, industry, transport and building sectors, and food and financial systems.
  • It also tells that the global transformation to a low-carbon economy would require 4 to 6 trillion USD in investment each year.

Source: IE

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