New U.N. climate report offers ‘bleak’ emissions forecast

The CO2 emissions continued to rise in the 2015-2019 timeframe and will continue to rise in the future. This is a bleak forecast according to the new Report by the the Science Advisory Group to UN Climate Action Summit 2019.

The key messages of the Report are included in the circle graph below:

Average global temperature for 2015–2019 is on track to be the warmest of any equivalent period on record. It is currently estimated to be 1.1 °C above pre-industrial (1850–1900) times and 0.2 °C warmer than 2011–2015.

Observations show that global mean sea level rise is accelerating and an overall increase of 26% in ocean acidity since the beginning of the industrial era.

Global fossil CO2 emissions continue to grow by over 1% annually and 2% in 2018 reaching a new high. Despite extraordinary growth in renewable energy, fossil fuels still dominate the global energy system.

GHG concentration is rising: current levels of CO2, CH4 and N2O represent 146%, 257% and 122% respectively of pre-industrial levels (pre-1750)​

Global emissions are not estimated to peak by 2030, let alone by 2020. Implementing current unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) would lead to a global mean temperature rise between 2.9 °C and 3.4 °C by 2100 relative to pre-industrial levels, and continuing thereafter. See graph below:

For further information, see the following links:

https://ane4bf-datap1.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wmocms/s3fs-public/ckeditor/files/Five_year_report_2015-2019_0.pdf?4M6Z45W4mlGplwRxbJnQrgi08Ssq5LXe

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/new-un-climate-report-offers-bleak-emissions-forecast

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/climate/greenhouse-gas-emissions-carbon.html

https://www.vox.com/2019/11/26/20983626/climate-change-un-emissions-gap-report