World way off target to tackle climate crisis

| 27/10/2022 | 55 Comments
Cayman News Service
Image from the cover of the UN Emissions Gap Report 2022

(CNS): Greenhouse gas emissions must now decrease rapidly because the international community is falling so far short of the Paris goals that the opportunity to change things gradually has been lost, according to another disturbing report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

With no credible pathway to the idea of containing global warming to 1.5°C in place, the Emissions Gap Report 2022 finds urgent system-wide dramatic transformations are needed in the electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, as well as in the food and financial systems to help avoid climate disaster.

“This report tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us, all year, through deadly floods, storms and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and stop doing it fast,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said in a press release about the report. “We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.”

Despite a decision by all countries at COP26 in Glasgow last year to strengthen Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the scientists said that progress had been woefully inadequate. Emissions have been cut by just 1% of what was needed. This lack of progress leaves the world hurtling towards a temperature rise far above the Paris Agreement’s preferred goal of 1.5% in global temperature increase.

Given that the world is already experiencing catastrophic weather events almost everywhere at just one degree of warming, it is clear humanity is in big trouble. Unprecedented cuts in global emissions will now be needed over the next eight years to hold global warming to 1.5°C through large-scale, rapid and systemic transformation.

“It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try,” Andersen said. “Every fraction of a degree matters: to vulnerable communities, to species and ecosystems, and to every one of us.

“Even if we don’t meet our 2030 goals, we must strive to get as close as possible to 1.5°C. This means setting up the foundations of a net-zero future: one that will allow us to bring down temperature overshoots and deliver many other social and environmental benefits, like clean air, green jobs and universal energy access.”

The transformation towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in electricity supply, industry, transportation and buildings is underway but needs to move much faster. Electricity supply is most advanced, as the costs of renewable electricity have reduced dramatically. However, the pace of change must increase alongside measures to ensure a just transition and universal energy access, the report warns.

Unless countries dramatically scale up their efforts to counter the climate crisis, the world faces a global catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned.

“The recommendations in today’s report are clear,” Guterres said. “End our reliance on fossil fuels. Avoid a lock-in of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Invest massively in renewables. Commitments to net zero are worth zero without the plans, policies and actions to back it up. Our world cannot afford any more greenwashing, fake movers or late movers.”

Guterres’ warning comes less than two weeks before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), where global leaders will discuss ways to tackle the climate emergency, such as building resilience and adapting to its impacts and financing climate action.

The conference is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, but critics say Egypt, a nation highly vulnerable to climate change but with a regime antagonistic toward the grassroots climate conversation, was not an appropriate choice.


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Category: Climate Change, Science & Nature

Comments (55)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    And how things are in 🇰🇾Cayman?

    Medical waste incinerator meeting to be held in St David’s [🇧🇲Bermuda]
    https://www.royalgazette.com/environment/news/article/20221029/medical-waste-incinerator-meeting-to-be-held-in-st-davids/

    New business launches to handle medical waste (🇧🇲Bermuda]
    https://www.royalgazette.com/local-business/business/article/20220318/new-business-launches-to-handle-medical-waste/

  2. Anonymous says:

    What you need to know is, middle class contraction in the west with ESG and other inefficient allocations of capital.

    • Anonymous says:

      Don’t start talking about ESG as though you think you understand what it is. ESG is Board-level de-risking policy to spare companies backlash from blindness to today’s headline risks. Considering what areas can backfire against the company is a good use of time, and material ESG efforts have been proven to improve returns for shareholders, conditions for stakeholders, reduce regulator and governmental headaches, and spare companies public criminal investigations that would otherwise bury the enterprise. Worker safety, gender pay equity, and diversifying thought on Boards don’t necessarily have anything to do with Earth’s climate change, but they are worthy pursuits that aren’t going anywhere. The old white male Boards that fear ESG, should be nervous, take a course, or retire.

  3. want to believe says:

    If we remove the top of the pyramids ability to profit without challenge by changing the dynamics then we can start tackling the problem.
    Until then nothing will ever (ever) change.

    #1 Saudi Arabian Oil Co. ( Saudi Aramco) (Tadawul: 2222)
    #2 PetroChina Co. Ltd. ( PTR)
    #3 China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. ( SNP)
    #4 Exxon Mobil Corp. ( XOM)
    #5 TotalEnergies SE (TOT)
    #6 BP PLC (BP)
    #7 Chevron Corp. ( CVX)
    #8 Marathon Petroleum Corp. ( MPC)

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/27/profits-at-worlds-seven-biggest-oil-firms-soar-to-almost-150bn-this-year-windfall-tax

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    • Anonymous says:

      You’re barking up the wrong tree

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    • Anonymous says:

      “Nothing will ever change” is a peculiar resignation to the lump sum of personal choice and self-determination…individually we can walk more, or continue to push for delivery of useable, and safe bike lanes in Cayman (the ones we paid for back in 2015), and use those for last mile transport when it makes sense. We can choose to eliminate our own meat and dairy, and reap the coincident health benefits. We can put timers on things that draw power. Wasteful consumers are not hapless victims, we are habitually complicit and far too many otherwise smart people, are stunted by tradition and misguided perception. Break free man!

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  4. Anonymous says:

    #BanTheUN
    #BanESG

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  5. Anonymous says:

    i went out on my motorcycle Sun, – (an early chance to chastise this post with a thumbs down and I’ll accept but there’s a purpose here.) Wearing a bike helmet makes the rider more open to the smells and aromas whilst underway. With that said I kept checking my gloves, shoes at the traffic lights, trying to find that smell of s*** that would never go away. Long gone are the days of green fauna, damp unspoilt earth, the seasonal scents of plants and blossoming foliage and its never coming back. There was no s*** on my bike, gloves, shoes or otherwise, it’s simply the smell of the new Cayman, – at that point it was fully reinforced that we as a species/humanity are well and truly f*****. Apologies for the expletives, but that’s our new sought for and earned ‘better’ being.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Cayman always smells like that…and it is going to get worse…at least you can smell the 💩, not all hazardous emissions are sensed by your olfactory nerve.

      ☢️Radiation for example. What radiation you might ask?
      3 hospitals (and the 4th is coming), numerous radiology services, labs, doctors, dentists, veterinary service-they ALL use radiation producing materials.

      🆘THERE IS NO RADIATION SAFETY ACT IN CAYMAN
      🆘THERE IS NO RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL DISPOSAL REGULATIONS IN CAYMAN.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I ride my bike, and many parts of Cayman smell glorious. I guess it depends where you are, time of day, and/or the state of petrichor in the underbrush. The wild chickens certainly put out a distinctive aroma. Something should be done about those.

    • Anonymous says:

      It might be your rank helmet tbh. Cayman smells better than most places.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Depopulation is already underway.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    I love how I often get preached to about the importance of recycling by some eco friendly mother, who then promptly drives off in a 4×4, hubby also has a 4×4 too and they’ve bought the nanny a Honda/Toyota. To cap it all, they have a 5000+ square foot home running up huge CUC bills from the ac and lighting.
    We are doomed because everyone across the world thinks it’s someone else’s responsibility to cut down creating carbon.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Let’s start pumping more oil on this side of the world and get inflation under control. After that they reinvest in green projects. Our enemies are laughing at us and we keep allowing our politicians and environmentalists to run our countries. They do care if it all goes to hell because they hate how the west.

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    • Anonymous says:

      en·e·my- a hostile nation or its armed forces or citizens, especially in time of war.

      Who is “us”? Who is “our enemies”? and why they are OUR enemies? why in 2022 nations still have enemies?

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Europe’s energy crisis has upended the green transition and undermined efforts keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    Triple damage
    The energy crisis has negatively impacted the EU’s climate agenda in at least three ways. First, the gas crunch has necessitated a massive shift back to coal

    Second, the financial implications of the energy crisis are immense. In the last twelve months, EU government allocated funding to shield households and businesses from rising energy expenses has surpassed 300 billion euros. Expect this figure to worsen in the coming winter months.
    It is unclear how European governments will reach their 2030 pledges given the worsening economic outlook and skyrocketing prices for energy, technological components, and labour costs.

    Lastly, the convoluted role of natural gas should be put in perspective. Ironically, the huge quantities of Russian gas were part of the calculation that made the EU’s ambitious climate agenda possible. Countries such as Germany, Austria and Italy tapped into pipeline flows to ensure the competitiveness of their industries and satiate the growing energy needs of their economies. Natural gas, a methane-emitting fossil fuel, has been labelled a ‘transitory’ fuel in the quest towards carbon neutrality. Stopping the gas deliveries means a hole in the national energy mix and a blow to the sustainability agendas of EU states.
    https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/10/04/will-the-energy-crisis-dampen-eu-climate-ambitions/

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    • Anonymous says:

      The Earth was closing-in on 1.5’C Tipping Point in work published by UN IPCC back in February of this year. Their dataset used in AR6 is footnoted to 2018, almost 5 years ago. Indifference can’t be blamed on the Ukraine Occupation. There is no more time to pretend this can wait another 20 years.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Well, Europe is going back to coal…needless to say anything else.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    I don’t see the big deal it’s totally realistic for Cayman we just have to cancel our diesel power gen, desalinated water, freighted food, concrete and construction, jet and cruise-borne tourists…

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  12. Want to believe says:

    By the number of comments no one cares.
    Perhaps this is because nothing ever changes.
    Perhaps because there is no real viable solution.
    Perhaps those that are the ultimate beneficiaries which our finance industry indirectly or directly helps profit daily know something the rest do not.
    In the end like it or not cash will always rule the world as it stands.

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    • Anonymous says:

      There are decades of actionable mitigation plans that nobody wants to read, which also produce cash, jobs, and make us healthier. The more powerful stupids have carried the vote.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The problem is there is not going to be enough money to pay for net zero emissions.. Maybe the US or some of the EU can afford it without riots in the streets, but India, China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa, Pakistan, etc. are too much to swallow and will need decades to get there themselves. It’s going to get warmer and we will need to adapt as far as possible. A lot of people are going to want to move.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    We need to plant more trees in Cayman and stop tearing them out! We must save the mangroves and get solar power widely available. If we don’t actually start doing something now what is all this construction for when the islands underwater?

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Why is it that world leaders are not looking at reducing carbon emissions holistically? Whilst there needs to be a focus on reducing the use of fossil fuels, there also needs to be some considertion of reducing populations and deforestation. It is pointless reducing fossil fuel use then allowing uncontrolled destruction of rain forests and growth in world population. Fewer trees (less absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere) + More people ( more CO2 emitted into the atmosphere ) = Disaster.
    The world needs to tackle this problem together but unfortunately as we saw during the COVID Pandemic, each leader wants to do what they think is best for their country and not what is best for the world.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Humans, but not the 50 Billion unnecessary livestock that are raised for them to consume each year? 70% of all the wild animal populations that used to exist, have been destroyed since 1970, and their habitats burned and clear cut to make way for more industrialized farmland for animal feed crops. Animal agriculture is the only population problem that needs urgent fixing. Vote at the grocery store.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Forests are destroyed to plant palms for oil.to be used in food and cosmetics. Not all deforestation is for meat production.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The motivation for deforestation is to make room for cereal crops for animal feed, for the animals we eat. <20% of agricultural yield is destined for human consumption. Don't even get started on fresh water. There are mighty rivers that don't even reach the ocean anymore.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    It’s fossil fuels AND humanity’s meat and dairy diet obsession, which contributes more GHG than the entire transportation sector. Limited choices on transport, but we can fix our diet today, if we want to. Watch “Eating Our Way to Extinction” on YouTube. Read mitigations section in IPCC’s AR6. Plant based is mentioned over 240 times. Watch David Attenborough’s “A Life of Our Planet”. The Earth needs 80% of humanity to shift to plant-based eating, and reclaim and reforest >50% of cattle feed farmland for C02 sequestering, by 2030. There’s no time left to edit this truth out. Meat and dairy subsidies need to be ceased, and quotas will have to be on the table for anyone to take future climate talks seriously.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    wow…only 1% progress made.
    but very predictable…nothing can overcome the selfish, greed of humanity.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    stop eating meat.terrible for humans, terrible for animals, , disaster for the planet.

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    • Anonymous says:

      No

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    • Anonymous says:

      Stop telling us what to eat…
      Carbon Footprint of manufacturing and application of Crop Protection Products such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides as well as production and use of fertilisers makes the most significant contribution to the carbon footprints of all the crops.
      Energy consumption also makes a significant contribution to the carbon footprints of crop cultivation.

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    • Anonymous says:

      “Synthetic pesticides harm workers, pollute our environment and are driving emissions of greenhouse gases. Not only do they contribute to climate change through the direct emissions associated with their production, but perhaps even more importantly, they underpin and enable the damaging practices of industrial agriculture.” Dr Keith Tyrell, Director, PAN UK
      https://www.panna.org/blog/pesticides-and-climate-change

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    • Anonymous says:

      Eat more raw plant material and legumes and pass more gas. Livestock fart too, so it’s 6 of one or half a dozen of the other.

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      • Anonymous says:

        100% wrong but who cares when you have youtube videos to watch…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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      • Anonymous says:

        It’s not just farts and rumination: a single cow produces 65 lbs of waste a day, or 12 tons (908kg) per year. There are over a Billion cows now. That’s 12 Trillion tons of waste a year, just from cows. A medium-sized pig produces 1600 lbs (720kg) of waste in a year. There are close to a Billion pigs. A single chicken produces 45 lbs of waste per year, which may not seem like much until you factor there are over 50 Billion of them. That’s 2.25 Trillion tons of shit. Some of us consume 3 to 5 of them in a single fast food wings order which we then poop out. Average human makes 29 lbs a week, or 1600lbs a year (just under a ton). In two weeks there will be 8 Billion of us = 8 Billion Tons of human waste. Humans also produce 5lbs of other consumption waste as garbage per day. That’s another 40 Billion tons of waste per year. Still a particle as compared to animal agriculture. Not even factoring fresh water for animals, feed, fossil fuels, etc. The kicker is we don’t actually need to eat any animals.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Wayne Panton would do well to focus on this instead of the schmoozy love fest I witnessed this morning on CMR with him as her guest I mean really Wayne? Haven’t you heard that we don’t want Sandra having access to our Government ? Don’t you realize she is a security risk?

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