All taxpayers, public and private, must urgently shift their funding towards renewable energy to accelerate total decarbonization and access to renewable sources for all, he indicated on his official Twitter account.
The Sedcretary General shared the link to the most recent report on the 2021 production gap, prepared by the main research institutes and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
According to that report, governments’ fossil fuel production plans are dangerously out of sync with the limits set in the Paris Agreement, which seeks to reduce the rise in global temperature.
Despite increasing climate ambitions and commitments to achieve carbon neutrality, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels by 2030, the UNEP study indicates.
The report, first released in 2019, measures the gap between coal, oil and gas production planned by governments and global production levels consistent with meeting the temperature limits of the Paris Agreement. Two years later, that gap has practically not changed, highlights UNEP.
It also states that during the next two decades, an increase in world oil and gas production is projected, and only a modest decrease in that of coal.
‘There is still time to limit long-term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but this window of opportunity is closing rapidly,’ stressed UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.
At the United Nations Climate Conference – known as COP26 – and beyond, governments must step forward, take swift and immediate action to close the fossil fuel production gap, she added.
According to the UNEP report, governments of countries such as Australia, Brazil, the United States, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom continue to provide important political support for the production of fossil fuels.
‘The research is clear: global coal, oil and gas production must begin to decline immediately and abruptly to be consistent with limiting long-term warming,’ noted scientist Ploy Achakulwisut, lead author of the report.
Yet, he observed, governments continue to plan and support levels of fossil fuel production that far exceed what we can safely burn.
Additionally, more than $ 300 billion in new funding has been spent on fossil fuel activities since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, more than was spent on clean energy.
ef/msm/ifb
