Press. voanews.com
The U.N.'s
environment program said Tuesday countries and industries need to do more to
meet targets to trim emissions of greenhouse gases that experts say are
contributing to global warming. In its latest
"Emissions Gap" report issued ahead of an important climate
conference in Germany next week, the program takes aim at coal-fired electricity
plants being built in developing economies and says investment in renewable
energies will pay for itself — and even make money – over the long term.
Tuesday's report
comes as U.N. officials are making a renewed push to maintain momentum
generated by the Paris climate accord of 2015. It aims to cap
global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (Fahrenheit) by the year 2100
compared to average world temperatures at the start of the industrial era.
"The Paris
agreement boosted climate action, but momentum is clearly faltering," said
Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta, Costa Rica's environment minister who heads the 2017
UN Environment Assembly. "We face a stark choice: up our ambition, or
suffer the consequences." A new round of
U.N. climate talks known as COP 23 starts in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, when
countries will take stock of their achievements and prepare more ambitious
national goals.
In a summary of
the report, UNEP says that current trends suggest that even if current national
commitments are met, a temperature increase of 3-degrees Celsius by the end of
the century is "very likely — meaning that governments need to deliver
much stronger pledges when they are revised in 2020.''
"Should the
United States follow through with its stated intention to leave the Paris
agreement in 2020, the picture could become even bleaker," the statement
said, alluding to the Trump administration plans to withdraw the U.S. from the
global climate pact.
On the upside,
the agency highlights "rapidly expanding mitigation action" and says
carbon-dioxide emissions have remained stable since 2014, thanks partly to
renewable-energy use in China and India. It cautioned that other greenhouse
gases like methane continue to rise, however. UNEP trumpets the positive
effects of investment in solar and wind energy and efficient appliances and
cars, and efforts to preserve forests.