Setbacks raising heat over climate change
Print Edition
The world is getting further off track in limiting global warming with setbacks in Japan and Australia outweighing positive signals from the United States and China, according to a study published yesterday.
A Climate Action Tracker compiled by scientists said the world was headed for a temperature rise of 3.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times by 2100, against 3.1 degrees if governments stuck to promised cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Governments meeting in Warsaw this week are trying to find ways to limit global warming to an agreed ceiling of less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels to avert more heatwaves, droughts, downpours and rising sea levels.
“We are seeing a major risk of a further downward spiral in ambition, a retreat from action and a re-carbonization of the energy system led by the use of coal,” said Bill Hare, director of Climate Analytics.
The study, by Climate Analytics, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Ecofys, said Japan’s decision last week to ease its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions goals made it harder to reach the 2 degrees goal.
Japan said its original emissions goal of a 25 percent cut below 1990 levels was out of reach after its nuclear power industry was shut by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The new goal is for a maximum 3 percent rise.
Australia’s new policies, shifting from an emissions trading scheme, would also marginally raise emissions, adding to a problem that many nations were failing to stick to curbs on emissions agreed in 2009.
“These negative signals tend to outweigh some positive signals,” the study said, noting that US President Barack Obama had outlined tougher action and that China was banning coal-fired power plants in some areas.
In September, the UN panel of climate scientists said limiting warming would require “substantial and sustained” cuts in emissions.
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