The United Nations has set a new goal - 2070 - for the United States and other nations to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases.
The Emissions Gap Report was created both as a report on progress nations have made toward reducing greenhouse gases, as well as highlight paths toward future environmental goals. The United Nations has set a goal of limiting global temperature rise to an average of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years. This goal was set by the Copenhagen accord of 2009. The current report is the fifth annual report in the series, developed by the international body.
The report states that output of greenhouse gases worldwide averages between 57.3 and 59.5 billion tons each year. That amount must be reduced to 48.5 billion tons by the year 2020 in order to meet climate goals set in Copenhagen, the study concluded.
"The Emissions Gap Report underlines that tackling climate change is still manageable, if leadership is shown. In Cancun action on financing, mitigation and adaptation need to mature and move forward - supported perhaps by action on non-CO2 pollutants such as methane from rubbish tips to black carbon emissions," United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) managers stated in a statement on the report.
Nations are being encouraged to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the year 2070. In order to reach this goal, nations could invest in new insulation for homes and businesses, as well as plant additional swaths of forests, which can absorb carbon dioxide.
"The carbon goals are far tougher than those set by most nations in the run-up to a U.N. summit in Paris in 2015 that hopes to clinch a deal to limit floods, heatwaves, more powerful storms and rising sea levels," Alister Doyle wrote in an article for Reuters.
Greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere have risen by 45 percent globally in the last 15 years. China recently announced it would reach peak release of greenhouse gases sometime around the year 2030, but did not offer specifics as to the quantity of gases that will be emitted at that time.
Although 2014 is on track to go down on record as the warmest year ever recorded in the United States, temperatures in all 50 states fell below freezing on November 18.
"The challenge we face is neither a technical nor policy one - it is political: the current pace of action is simply insufficient. The technologies to reduce emission levels to a level consistent with the [3.6 degree Fahrenheit] target are available and we know which policies we can use to deploy them... This report is a call for political action," Achim Steiner, executive director of the UNEP, said.
