Greenhouse Gas Emissions Gap Widening as Nations Head to Crucial

London/Nairobi, 21 November 2012

Action on climate change needs to be scaled-up and accelerated without delay if the world is to have a running chance of keeping a global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius this century.

The Emissions Gap Report, coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Climate Foundation, and released days before the convening of the Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Doha, shows that greenhouse gas emissions levels are now around 14 per cent above where they need to be in 2020.

Instead of declining, concentration of warming gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) are actually increasing in the atmosphere—up around 20 per cent since 2000.

If no swift action is taken by nations, emissions are likely to be at 58 gigatonnes (Gt) in eight years’ time, says the report which has involved 55 scientists from more than 20 countries. This will leave a gap that is now bigger than it was in earlier UNEP assessments of 2010 and 2011 and is in part as a result of projected economic growth in key developing economies and a phenomenon known as ‘double counting’ of emission offsets...

Source: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Gap Widening as Nations Head to Crucial
Author: UNEP

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Link: The Emissions Gap Report 2012
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