Its five years since the Paris Agreement was signed to keep the global increase in temperature this century to 2°C (preferably 1.5°C). But how close are we to the goal?

  • Our Earth is warmer by 1°C since the pre-industrial period (1850-1900) and the global average temperature is increasing at the rate of 0.2°C per decade
  • The Emissions Gap Report 2020 released by the United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the 2020 global CO2 emissions could drop 7 per cent below 2019 levels due to Covid-19
  • However, it also states that the world will be warmer by 3.2°C by the end of the century.
  • As of 2019, China, the US, the European Union and the UK, India and Russia alone accounted for nearly 64 per cent of the global CO2 emissions
  • The Climate Action Tracker's projections and the resulting emission gaps as of September indicate that to bring down the temperature increase to 1.5°C, the higher end of carbon emissions should be 27.5 gigatonnes in 2030, which is nearly half of the emissions estimated based on the pledges and targets submitted by nations
  • Only Suriname and Bhutan have so far achieved net zero emissions, as per the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit's Net Zero Tracker
  • However, as of November, according to the UN, Japan, the UK, the Republic of Korea, and 110 other countries, have pledged carbon neutrality (net zero carbon dioxide emissions) by 2050.
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