2020 to be hottest year on record: Report

This year is likely to be the warmest on record.

According to a projection by a Unep report, the probable rise in temperatures counters the little progress made by the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions associated with Covid-19 measures such as lockdowns.

“Wildfires, storms and droughts continue to wreak havoc while glaciers melt at unprecedented rates,” said Inger Andersen, Unep’s Executive Director.

The report revealed that despite the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, with a drop of about seven per cent, greenhouse gas concentration continues to rise.

As a result, this year has recorded only 0.01 degrees Celsius decrease in global warming. For a sustainable climate, the Paris Agreement had set a goal to cap global temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius.

“The Covid-19 crisis offers only a short-term reduction in global emissions and will not contribute significantly to emissions reductions by 2030 unless countries pursue an economic recovery,” the report warns.

For the emissions goal to be realised, the report highlights that some of our lifestyle routines which contribute to the high greenhouse gas concentration need to change.

Carbon dioxide emissions

“Foremost among these are mobility, residential and food, each of which contributes close to 20 per cent of lifestyle emissions, thus implying strong mitigation potential in these areas,” it said.

The other contributing factors that need mitigation are the aviation and shipping sectors, which, unfortunately, are not part of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as in the Paris Agreement. But they were found to be responsible for about five per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

“Both sectors will therefore need to maximise their energy efficiency while rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels,” the report says.

It suggests alternatives that will help in toning down the emissions from the two sectors. “Biofuels and synthetic kerosene from biomass or carbon dioxide and hydrogen have lower carbon footprints than fossil hydrocarbon fuels, provided the biomass is sourced sustainably,” it says.

“For ships, carbon dioxide ammonia is an option given that a ship’s design is less constrained than that of a plane in terms of volume, fuel mass and safety,” the report adds.

The good news from the report is that most of the countries known to be high emitters of the greenhouse gases have made a commitment to collaborate and ensure that they reach net-zero emissions goals. “At the time of completing this report, 126 countries covering 51 per cent of global GHG emissions have net-zero goals that are formally adopted, announced or under consideration,” indicates the report.

Paris Agreement targets

For that to be realised, countries need to start acting on what they have committed to and some sacrifices need to be made, said the report. “The combined emissions of the richest one per cent of the global population account for more than twice the combined emissions of the poorest 50 per cent. This elite will need to reduce their footprint by a factor of 30 to stay in line with the Paris Agreement targets,” said Andersen.

The report says to reach the Paris Agreement goal, countries need to come up with long-term strategies and the NDCs have to be in line with the net-zero emission goals.

“While there have also been stronger pledges on climate – including China targeting carbon neutrality by 2060, South Africa by 2050, and the Japanese and European Union net-zero GHG target of mid-century – they are yet to be reflected in updated NDCs. Governments must go greener in the next stage of Covid-19 fiscal interventions and increase their NDC ambitions in 2021,” said the report.

Moving forward, the report said governments need to speed up decarbonisation of most of the industries such as energy, transport, building and adoption of sustainable policies that will help in green recovery in order to protect the natural ecosystem.