First world countries are reportedly falling short on efforts expected of them to combat climate change.
The U.S. and several other rich countries are not contributing as much as they should, according to a new study made by several concerned organizations including the International Trade Union Confederation, Christian Aid, Oxfam and WWF International.
Researchers found that these countries' pledges to curb carbon emissions are not enough to prevent rise in global temperatures that causes eleveated sea levels, unpredictable weather and intense heat.
"The ambition of all major developed countries falls well short of their fair shares," researchers wrote in their study.
These findings are timely with talks being held this month among more than 150 nations on exchanging plans to combat global warming and climate change. The sessions' results will help prepare a deal for the Paris summit in December to control climate change beyond 2020.
Many of these nations have already submitted plans to fight climate change, but there is no agreed way to measure each country's level of ambition or whether they were contributing what could be called a fair share.
If the measures of a country's history of using fossil fuels and their capacity to adjust fossil fuel use are to be considered, however, then reporters point out that the United States, several European countries and Japan are underperforming by 5 to 10 percent. China on the other hand, is performing beyond expectations.
Admirable effort, analysts said, but unfortunately not enough.
"The overall ambition of the developed countries is still not sufficient," said Niklas Hoehne, founding partner of the New Climate Institute.
Last year UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that developed countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1990 should reduce their carbon footprints by at least half come 2030 compared to global emissions of 2010.
The rate that global emission is cut in each country is a benchmark for emerging economies in terms of how they should implement their own carbon emission cutting strategies, especially among countries like India and South Africa which are yet to set their own goals.
The U.S. and other developed nations have pledged to cut global emission rate equal to 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, though the US said their cuts will run only up to 2025.
Frank Melum from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, said many of the rich countries' pledges could be positively received by reviews from the upcoming summit.
He added that the rich countries' targets could be achieved successfully because these targets are made attainable by existing policies and regulations such as power plant restrictions as well as acces and promotion of renewable energy sources.
