October 27, 2022

A new report from the UNEP, Emission Gap report 2022, finds that countries’ current climate plans are still not demonstrating the rapid downward trend science says is necessary this critical decade. Collectively, countries’ efforts still remain woefully insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Kaisa Kosonen, Senior Policy Advisor, Greenpeace Nordic said:
“It’s a disaster. Countries keep acting too little too late, and so these annual assessments sound like a broken record.

It doesn’t have to be this way! Earlier this year world’s leading scientists underlined that halving global emissions by the end of this decade is not only urgently needed, but still perfectly doable. Solutions are abundant, allowing a faster transition away from fossil fuels. So where’s the plan? Where’s the action?

Currently, countries are neither preparing for the green and fair transition they promised nor for the world we’re currently heading. We’re just speeding towards more climate chaos, human suffering and irreversible losses. We need an emergency response, right now.”

With COP27, the 27th UN Climate Change Conference in less than two weeks, the new assessments by the UNEP and the IEA today are a timely reminder to world governments to revisit their climate plans and enhance cooperation, in order to bring real climate action to the climate talks, and close the gap between where emissions are currently headed and where science advises they should be by the end of this critical decade.