U.N. says only a 'quantum leap' can keep global climate goals within reach [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

U.N. says only a ‘quantum leap’ can keep global climate goals within reach
The report comes as nations will need to update their pledges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a time when the world is on course to blow past all targets for limiting warming.

By Chico Harlan
October 24, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. EDT

If there’s any way that countries might avert planetary catastrophe, they haven’t yet laid out the details explaining how.

But nations will need to update their pledges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions next year, detailing the steps they will take over the coming decade. And a United Nations report released Thursday said that nothing short of a “quantum leap in ambition” will suffice at a time when the world is on course to blow past all targets for limiting warming.

That’s the core message of this year’s U.N. Emissions Gap report — a definitive, annual assessment of the planet’s trajectory — which tries to take stock of both the planet’s future warming given policies in place, and the additional steps that would be necessary to meet climate goals. This year’s report reads like a pep talk for world leaders and policymakers who’ve made a tough task vanishingly more difficult by allowing greenhouse gas emissions to continue to rise; by so far setting national goals that are insufficient; and by not fulfilling even those pledges.

“Another year passing with no action means we’re worse off,” said Anne Olhoff, the report’s chief scientific editor.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/10/24/global-warming-countries-un/

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https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2024