The Surging News reporter Zhang Wuwei Wu Yinfang
The 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) is nearing the halfway mark. A new analysis released by the Energy Transition Council on November 5 showed that if the commitments made by countries by the end of the first week of cop26 were fully met, the world would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 9 gigatonnes (gt) of carbon dioxide. In order to maintain warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, annual carbon dioxide emissions need to be further reduced by 22 gigatonnes by 2030. So the remaining target of about 13 gigatons is a reminder that there is still a long way to go to tackle climate change.
Action on methane is also critical to achieving the 1.5 degrees Celsius target. To meet this target, it is expected that annual methane emissions will need to be reduced by 40% by 2030. The same analysis found that if commitments before the end of the first week of cop26 can really be met, the target of a 40 percent reduction in annual methane emissions could be achieved by one-third.
Editor-in-Charge: Li Yiqing