Temperature rise could still be maintained at 1.5 degrees, but climate is already changing ‘alarmingly fast’ | outside

According to the International Energy Agency, the Paris goal – keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, with a temperature rise target of 1.5 degrees – can still be achieved. This will require a “united effort” from all governments around the world.

This effort includes generating 11,000 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030. In addition, investments in renewable energy must increase from $1.8 trillion this year to $4.5 trillion by 2030, and efficiency gains are still needed. energy.

Moreover, almost all countries will have to become climate neutral sooner than currently planned. Advanced economies, including the United States and the European Union, must achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. As for China, the target date is 2050. By 2035, emissions in rich countries must be reduced by 80%. In developing countries and emerging economies this number reaches 60 percent.

If these countries do not increase their ambitions, they will put their eggs in the basket of technologies such as carbon dioxide capture and storage. However, these technologies are “expensive and not widely proven.” “The path to 1.5 degrees has narrowed over the past two years, but growth in renewable energy remains open,” the IEA concluded.

“Despite the scale of the challenges, I feel more optimistic than I did two years ago,” IEA Director Fatih Birol said in an interview, but greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector “remain stubbornly high,” he said. Extreme weather this year showed the climate is already changing at an “alarming speed”.