The BBC suggests there is a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be critical in dealing with the global climate crisis, among other environmental challenges.
Having 12 to 18 months to make decisive changes in global climate policies or risk an extinction event is scary to contemplate and makes for great headlines, and to be sure, observers recognize that decisive, political steps to cut carbon emissions need to be implemented soon.
In 2017, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute, said, “The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020.”
Extreme weather and CO2 emissions
It is hard to digest the figures coming out today that show there has actually been a rise in CO2 emissions, as indicated is British Petroleum’s Statistical Review of World Energy —f published on June 11, 2019.
Yes, the math is brutal, but so too, is the number of extreme weather events being experienced around the world in recent years. The driver behind the rapid increase in carbon emissions was the sharp increase in abnormally hot and cold days around the world, which in turn led consumers to use more energy for cooling and heating.
The report also shows “the growing mismatch” between our demand for climate action and the actual pace of our progress toward mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis.
The UK has 18 months to get its act together
Actually, the UK government only has 12-18 months left to raise its game on climate policy, or risk “embarrassment” as the likely host of the COP26 UN summit late next year, reports Carbon Brief.
Speaking at a Reception for Commonwealth Foreign Ministers at Clarence House in London two weeks ago, the Prince of Wales said he was “firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival.”
So, what ‘s this all about? The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) progress report submitted to the UK parliament and government in June said the government remained off-track against its legally binding carbon budgets and got failing report cards on a series of indicators developed by the CCC.
This resulted in Prime Minister Theresa May introducing legislation to enshrine into law a net-zero-emissions by 2050 target. On Thursday, June 27, Britain made the legislation a legally binding commitment to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, when Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore signed the legislation.
Where is the world under the IPCC time-frame?
Under the terms of the Global Climate Agreement, signed in December 2015, countries promised to improve their carbon-cutting plans by the end of next year. One of the stipulations in the IPCC report published last year was that global emissions of carbon dioxide must peak by 2020 to keep the planet below 1.5C.
Currently, we are heading towards 3C of heating by 2100, not 1.5 degrees. Many countries have been laying out their climate plans in five and 10-year time-frames. This means that if a 45 percent carbon cut target is to be met by 2030, then those plans need to be completed by the end of 2020.
More importantly, at least for the UK, is that they are expected to host COP26, which takes place at the end of 2020. The UK wants to use the opportunity of hosting COP26 in a post-Brexit world to show that Britain can build the political will for progress.
“If we succeed in our bid (to host COP26) then we will ensure we build on the Paris agreement and reflect the scientific evidence accumulating now that we need to go further and faster,” said Environment Secretary Michael Gove, in what may have been his last major speech in the job.
Prince Charles’ remarks are critical — not just to Britain, but to the world as a whole. And with more and more people demanding action, there is hope that governments will listen and take action.
