Despite lofty commitments by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they are still planning to extract huge amounts of energy from fossil fuels in the coming years, according to a new report from the United Nations.
The report published Wednesday details how the world’s largest fossil fuel producers plan to carry on using coal, gas, and oil — despite promises made under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
The world’s governments plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030, with just a modest decrease in coal production. That’s contrary to promises to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and 45% more than what would be consistent with warming of 2 degrees, according to the report.
This latest report comes as the world’s leaders are set to meet at the UN climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow beginning on Oct. 31.
Executive Director of UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen said in a statement that at that COP26 conference, “governments must step up, taking rapid and immediate steps to close the fossil fuel production gap and ensure a just and equitable transition.”
Limiting warming to this threshold is important to avoid the worst case scenarios of climate change, according to scientists.
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