WORLD SET TO CROSS 3.2°C

Long-term benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions today outweigh the costs

- Avantika Goswami

The CO2st of wind energy has reduced by 55 per cent in the past two decades

TIME IS running out and the world, despite having worthy clean alternatives, is not doing enough, shows the third instalment of the Sixth Assessment Report, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on April 4, 2022.

The 3,000-page report says that in 2019, global net anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, at 59 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or GtCO2,e (a unit that includes emissions from CO2, and all other GHGS), were 54 per cent higher than that in 1990. This growth was driven by CO2, emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and industries, as well as methane emissions (see 'Ominous signs', p16).

Emissions are also mapped unequally across regions, pointing to the fact that carbon inequality is pervasive. Least developed CO2un-tries were responsible for only 3.3 per cent of global emissions in 2019. Their average per capita emissions between 1990 and 2019 were only 1.7 tonnes (t) CO2,e, CO2mpared to the global average of 6.9 tCO2,e. Globally, 41 per cent of the world's population lived in CO2untries emitting less than 3 tCO2,e per capita in 2019.

The only positive is that the average annual rate of growth of global GHG emissions slowed to 1.3 per cent per year in 2010-19, CO2mpared to 2.1 per cent per year in 2000-09. Some 18 CO2untries have reduced GHG emissions for more than 10 years on a CO2ntinuous basis due to decarbonisation of their energy system and reduced energy demand.

Yet, this is a drop in the ocean CO2mpared to the emission cuts required to adhere to the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures.

GREEN AND AFFORDABLE

Cost of renewable energy and batteries have fallen, and their use is on the rise