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UN-CLIMATE,FACTS
Paris promises: where the world’s biggest polluters stand
NEW YORK, Sept 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres
has convened a major new climate summit on September 23 because the world’s
main polluters remain well behind their goals as laid out in the 2015 Paris
Agreement.
Here are where the main players stand in relation to the goals they had set
for themselves.
– China –
China is on track to meet or surpass its goal for carbon dioxide emissions
to peak by 2030.
Beijing has also set a goal of 20 percent of its future energy mix to come
from non-fossil fuels (renewable and nuclear). This goal appears more
distant.
– United States –
Under former president Barack Obama, the US committed to reducing its
emissions from 26 to 28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005.
But his successor Donald Trump announced in 2017 he would be leaving the
Paris agreement (though the US remains a part until 2020), and immediately
committed to tearing Obama’s plan apart, rolling back limits on coal-fired
plants, auto emissions and more.
– European Union –
The EU is committed to a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
The European Commission predicts that this objective will be exceeded, but
wants its member states to adopt a more ambitious goal: zero net emissions by
2050.
Member countries have yet to achieve a consensus and negotiations continue.
– Carbon neutral goals –
Two small countries, Bhutan and Suriname, are already carbon neutral,
according to a study by Britain’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit
published in June.
Several others have announced their intention to reach that objective by
2050 or earlier.
Here is a list of those who have codified that goal into their law, or have
committed to it as part of their Paris agreement objectives, according to the
site climatechangenews.com:
By 2030: Norway and Uruguay
By 2045: Sweden and the US state of California
By 2050: Fiji, France (which holds its final vote on the matter in its
upper house in September) and the United Kingdom
But adopting this objective does not signify a country is on track to meet
it, as shown by the example of France.
A government body ruled in June that the actions undertaken thus far were
“insufficient”.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1108 hrs