Climate Action Network comments on the release of the UNEP Emissions Gap report
19 November 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014: The release of UNEP's Fifth Emissions Gap report today has added to the growing number of voices, including those of the 900 NGOS working together in Climate Action Network, which are calling for governments to scale up climate action to achieve a phase out of carbon pollution to zero by mid-century.
Today's report comes on the back of another blockbuster report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report which was released on November 1 and endorsed by governments. It said that the only way our economies can still prosper is if we both phase out fossil fuel pollution entirely and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The UNEP report makes plain that if governments scale up climate action now, they will unlock the benefits of action for their communities, such as better public health, more secure livelihoods and a reduction in poverty.
The concept of a global carbon budget shared by all nations – put forward by both the IPCC and UNEP – and the bold NGO call for phasing down emissions to zero by 2050 have now both been added to new draft negotiating texts for the international agreement to limit climate change due to be finalized in December 2015 in Paris.
At the major UN climate negotiations in Lima next month, governments can support these concepts in the text as way to guide collective climate action. They can sign off on a platform that would support countries to roll out more renewable energy, invest in energy efficiency and build smarter ways of powering our lives.
In early 2015, governments will table a commitment to take climate action which will speed up the ongoing transition of our economies away from reliance on fossil fuels that drive climate change and towards 100% renewable energy – a shift more and more citizens, businesses, investors and scientists are demanding and driving.
Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 900 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
Contact: Ria Voorhaar, CAN International, email: rvoorhaar@climatenetwork.org, phone: +49 157 3173 5568