Wednesday November 10, 2021
There is a large gap to the Paris Agreement
USA and China agree more climate protection
China and the USA want to do more to protect the climate together. Both states therefore recognize that the current efforts to achieve the Paris climate protection goals are insufficient. The agreement is not more specific. Meanwhile, dozens of scientists are warning against inaction.
The two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, China and the USA, signed an agreement for more climate protection at the UN climate conference. The Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua announced this Wednesday evening in Glasgow. “Both sides recognize that there is a gap between the current efforts and the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement,” said Xie, referring to the threat of global warming of 2.7 degrees.
“The US and China have no shortage of differences,” said US climate protection commissioner John Kerry. “But with climate, it’s the only way we can do that. We can’t achieve our goals if we don’t work together,” added Kerry.
The Paris Climate Agreement provides for global warming to be limited to well below two degrees, but if possible to 1.5 degrees. According to the UN, the earth is currently heading for a momentous warming of 2.7 degrees by the end of the century, even if all national climate protection commitments are met. In Glasgow, almost 200 states have been negotiating the concrete implementation of the Paris Agreement of 2015 since October 31st. Officially, COP26 is supposed to end on Friday.
Shortly before the World Climate Conference, China disappointed with its revised climate target. In it, the most populous country in the world only confirmed that it wants to achieve CO2 neutrality by 2060. The country’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to peak before 2030, so they could rise significantly by then.
Scientists: Reduce emissions “immediately”
Dozens of climate scientists appealed in the run-up to the agreement in an open letterto take seriously the warnings of science. “COP26 is a historic moment for the fate of the climate, society and ecosystems, because human activity has already warmed the planet by around 1.1 degrees”, explain the researchers, including climate experts from Germany. The Swiss researcher Reto Knutti, who is also on the list of signatories, published the appeal on his Twitter page.
Knutti and his colleagues are calling for immediate and consistent measures to keep global warming well below two degrees compared to pre-industrial times. This is the only way to keep the risks to future generations and the need to adapt to climate change in check. The COP negotiators in Glasgow should take into account the scientific findings on the connection between high greenhouse gas emissions and changes in the global climate in their decision-making process, is a central demand. In their letter, the researchers also explicitly refer to the IPPC climate report, which was released in August. According to this report, half of the carbon dioxide content in the earth’s atmosphere was created in the past 30 years. The researchers emphasize that there has never been such a high concentration of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.
If emissions continue as before, the remaining budget for greenhouse gas emissions would be used up between 2027 and 2033, it said. For this reason, emissions would have to drop “immediately” in order to avert irreversible consequences for the entire climate system.