Today, the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) set out what measures nations and businesses could take in the 2020s to comply with the Paris Accord and limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.
Current national decarbonisation commitments (so-called “nationally determined contributions”) made under the Paris climate agreement fall far short of the requirements to prevent global warming from overheating by 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels.
Reaching this target would require an extra 17 to 20 Gt in CO2 reductions and a 40% reduction in methane emissions.
But the UN’s latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Keeping 1.5 ° CAlive: Closing the Gap in the 2020s details technically feasible measures that could close the gap to a 1.5º C path, and that could be catalyzed through agreements at next November’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Commitments from the world leaders in steel, cement, shipping and aviation could allow an additional 1 Gt per year of emission reduction potentially achieved by accelerating electricity generation.
In order to achieve that the financial backing of the wealthy industrialised countries is fundamental and should be a priority use of committed climate finance.
