The international community “falls well short of the Paris target,” says a new UN report. “Disasters are already starting to become a reality,” Haldor Sorgeirsson, head of Iceland’s climate council, told RÚV yesterday.
2022 Emissions Gap Report
Yesterday, October 27th, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published its 2022 Emissions Gap Report. By assessing the so-called ’emissions gap’, the report provides an update on progress towards ‘fulfilling national mitigation commitments’ and the targets set by the Paris Agreement.
As noted in a UN press release, the report concludes that the international community “is well short of the Paris target without a credible pathway to 1.5°C in place”. . The authors say the only way to avert climate disaster is through urgent “system-wide change.”
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“Global and national climate change efforts are pitifully inadequate,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a video message introducing the report yesterday. “We must close the emissions gap before climate catastrophe hits us all.”
Chairman of the Icelandic Climate Council
To address the report’s findings, RÚV Haldor Sorgeirsson, Chairman of the Icelandic Climate Council (and former senior director of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat) gave an interview to the News last night. Halldór candidly states: Artificial. The strongest example is Pakistan, and equally bad is Florida, which is closer to home.
“These things are already showing up in the form that they are no longer a matter of the future. The only viable way forward is to undertake rapid, large-scale system-wide transformation.”
The only way to do this, Halldór argued, is to increase investment. “It’s a big number, but it’s really only about 2% of the total budget. So it certainly seems doable. is about this, alongside greater cooperation between nations.”
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) will be held in Egypt from 6 to 18 November. This marks the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference. No “major decisions” are expected to be made during the meeting, Halldór said.
“The focus of this meeting will be on adhering to the agreement,” said Halldór. “The implementation of the Paris Agreement was signed in Glasgow last year. The first two days of the conference will be attended by world leaders and the message they send is important. All eyes will be on China. They are quite reticent, and one of the big issues at this conference is how to provide assistance to countries suffering from such disasters, so I think that this very strong undercurrent related to the aforementioned disasters I have.”
