Global Emissions Must Drop 55 Percent by 2030 to Meet Climate Goals
The global emissions gap is growing when it needs to be shrinking
By Eillie Anzilotti
After three years of holding steady, global greenhouse gas emissions rose by 1.1 percent this year. Clearly, this is not good. In a significant report released this fall, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change illustrated the urgent need to rein in global warming, and to essentially decarbonize global industries by 2050. Even a slight increase in emissions is a setback (holding steady, at a level still very unhealthy for the planet, wasn’t great either, but it was at least progress).
It also contributed to a widening of what’s known as the “emissions gap“–essentially, the difference between “where we are and where we need to be.” Every year since 2011, the UN Environment Program has detailed the state of this global emissions gap. Doing so, though, is a bit like trying to hit a moving target. “There’s so much more information now, and so many more models and projections that we have to integrate into our study,” says Philip Drost, program officer at UN Environment. As climate science has grown more evolved, as matters of measuring emissions have become more sophisticated, and most crucially, as global warming goals have become more urgent, he…
