With eight days left until COP28 in Dubaithe UN has sounded the alarm: the planet faces a increase in temperatures of 3 degrees with the current trend. With the nationally determined contributions (NDC) to which 149 countries have committed, the global temperature would rise between 2.5 and 2.9 degrees, still well above the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement.
The 2023 data meanwhile continue to cause alarm among scientists. For 86 days until October, the “ceiling” of 1.5 degrees was already exceeded. September was the hottest month ever recorded, with a global average temperature of 1.8 degrees above the pre-industrial era. A month before the arrival of the southern summer, Brazil has experienced an unprecedented heat wave this week, with a thermal sensation of 52 degrees in Rio de Janeiro.
“The world is moving towards a hellish future,” reiterated the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “We are facing a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the most vulnerable and a great lost opportunity. Renewables have never been cheaper and more accessible. We know that we can still make the 1.5 degree limit a reality. What is required is to start the root of the climate crisis: fossil fuels”.
“There is no person or economy on the planet that is not affected by climate change,” he warned. Inger Andersendirector of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), in the presentation of the “emissions gap” report that warns about the three-degree scenario.
“We have to put an end to these records of emissions, temperatures and episodes of extreme weather,” urged the Danish economist. “And we have to raise the bar to leave behind insufficient actions and set other types of records, to cut emissions and finance countries vulnerable to climate change.”