Global
carbon emissions to hit new record
19
October, 2018
International
Energy Agency chief says chance of meeting targets of the Paris
Agreement are getting ‘weaker and weaker’
Looking
at data for the first nine months of this year, emissions this year
will increase once again … global emissions will reach a record
historical high
Global
carbon emissions will rise to a new record level in 2018 - making the
chances of reaching a target to keep temperature increases to 1.5 or
2C “weaker and weaker every year, every month” - the head of the
International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
Fatih
Birol told a conference in Paris that data for the first nine months
of the years was already pointing to a record increase in carbon
emissions.
A
United Nations report last week said society would have to make deep
changes to how it consumes energy, travels and builds, to meet a
lower global warming target.
Weaker
and weaker
Global
emissions would need to peak soon after 2020 and decline sharply
afterwards in order to keep temperature rise within 1.5C or 2C, said
a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“Sorry,
I have very bad news. My numbers are giving me some despair,” Birol
told the conference at the Polish embassy in Paris on Wednesday.
Poland
will host United Nations COP24 talks in December, which will lay out
a “rule book” to implement a historic accord reached in Paris in
2015. That agreement set goals to phase out fossil fuel use this
century, shift towards cleaner energies and help limit a rise in
temperatures.
“Looking
at data for the first nine months of this year, emissions this year
will increase once again … global emissions will reach a record
historical high,” Birol said.
“Therefore
the chances of reaching such ambitious targets in my view, are
becoming weaker and weaker every year, every month,” he said.
Aspirational
limit
While
renewables have been growing strongly, their growth isn’t large
enough to reverse CO2 emissions trends, Birol said.
“We
need more renewables in all end-uses – including more bioenergy –
more energy efficiency and a range of other technologies and fuel
sources to correct this course,” he said on Twitter.
Referring
to the IPCC report released earlier this month, Birol underscored the
“critical role of bioenergy to limit global temperature rises.”
The
share of bioenergy in total renewables consumption globally is about
50% today – as much as hydro, wind, solar and all other renewables
combined, the IEA said in a report published earlier this month.
In
transport, the IPCC’s integrated assessment indicates that biofuels
will need to rise 260% by 2030 and 750% by 2050 in order to keep
global warming within the 1.5C aspirational limit of the Paris
Agreement.
Bioenergy
is “the overlooked giant of the renewable energy field,” Birol
said.
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