Dear all, for my first post in over a month and a half, there is so much I need to write about as a lot happened in this vast world of ours on climate change mitigation.
A report from PWC confirms what I have been writing several times recently : Business could deliver two-thirds of emissions cuts for 2°C Goal. To the press release :
The President and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Peter Bakker, has launched a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers showing that the ambitions set out in WBCSD’s Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative could deliver 65% of all the carbon emission reductions needed to meet the UN target of keeping global warming to under 2°C.
However, for this target to be met, the right policy framework needs to be created by governments around the world.
To meet this ambition, the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi) could channel at least $5-$10 trillion investment into low carbon sectors and create at least 20m-45m jobs around the world as a result over the next 15 years.
For more details, please read the WBCSD media advisory, which contains a link to the full report.
To exemplify this, a new coalition, the RE 100, is regrouping some of the world’s most influential companies – including Coca Cola, Marks and Spencer or Ikea among others – which are switching to 100 % renewable energy.
Cities as well are starting to act massively as their citizens demand action. The Guardian reported some news from England that should be developed everywhere else :
Most of Britain’s major cities will be run entirely on green energy by 2050, after the leaders of more than 50 Labour-run councils made pledges to eradicate carbon emissions in their areas.
In a highly significant move, council leaders in Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Glasgow and many others signed up to the promise ahead of the crucial international climate talks that will take place next month in Paris. Labour said this would cut the UK’s carbon footprint by 10%.
And action is becoming more pressing as the world has already warmed by over a degree Celsius since pre-industrial times. Stopping climate change by 2 degrees is an imperative and it might not be enough : we might need to keep warming to 1.5 degree as we have seen in previous articles. As Climate Central reported :
It’s all but certain that 2015 will end up as the hottest year on record. And in setting that mark, the world is on track to finish the year 1°C above pre-industrial levels, a dubious milestone.
That would make 2015 the first year to crack the halfway mark of 2°C warming, the benchmark that’s been targeted as “safe” climate change
Lucky us, it seems global greenhouse gases emissions are slowing down, or perhaps they may even be decreasing. Yes, you read that right. This is partly due to China’s massive efforts to curb its local air pollution as it recently reached most dangerous levels. I guess Beijing – and Delhi – will soon start planting trees massively as nothing purifies our air like them.
The world’s greenhouse gases emissions’ trajectory is best shown in this great graph from the Economist :
But an overview on climate action news would not be complete without the event of the year or perhaps the decade, the 21th Conference of Parties that took place recently in Paris. This will be the subject of my next article, so stay tuned ! ( and subscribe ! 🙂 )
Image credits : NASA.
holding my breath till emissions are reduced worldwide; and finding recycled cloth to make air filters and mouth guards, Beijing style. stocking up on duct tape too..watch for further graphs showing how well the Paris agreements will hold climate behavior.