Nuclear Politics

Study Warns That EU Could Miss Paris Climate Targets

By David Dalton
16 November 2018

Study Warns That EU Could Miss Paris Climate Targets

16 Nov (NucNet): The EU is on course to more than double the 1.5 degrees Celsius that scientists say is a moderately safe level of warming, according to a study that ranks the climate goals of different countries.

According to the study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, current global climate policy commitments “do not add up to a global ambition consistent with the joint temperature goals”.

China, Russia and Canada’s climate policies would drive the world above a catastrophic 5C of warming, the study says.

The US and Australia are only slightly behind with both pushing the global temperature rise dangerously over 4C above pre-industrial levels.

The study concludes that the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of India, the EU, the US and China would lead to 2.6C, 3.2C, 4C and over 5.1C of warming respectively.

NDCs are a country’s post-2020 climate plans, submitted to the United Nations as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at limiting warming to 1.5C to 2C above pre-industrial levels.

The study assesses the relationship between each nation’s ambition to cut emissions and the temperature rise that would result if the world followed their example.

The aim of the study is to inform climate negotiators as they begin a two-year process of ratcheting up climate commitments, which currently fall far short of the 1.5-to-2C goal set in France three years ago.

The study is online: https://go.nature.com/2PwvH6Q

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