Study says Canada's "poor" climate policies would help increase global warming by 5 ° C



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Canada's current climate policies are "very poor" and would contribute to catastrophically increase world temperatures to 5 ° C by the end of the century, according to a new study ranking climate goals from different countries around the world.

The study found that Canada, Russia, China, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and a dozen other countries were contributing dangerously to the increase in the temperature of the planet and that they far exceeded the 1.5 C threshold sought by scientific research. According to IPCC findings, global warming is moderately safe.

The United States, Australia and the European Union are not far behind. EU countries are often described as leaders in the fight against climate change.

Canada has also been touted as a climate leader. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna regularly speaks about the urgency of tackling climate change, while promoting government actions, including plans to introduce a price tag. in 2019 as part of the solution.

"We have a real plan to protect the environment and grow the economy – and it works," McKenna said on Twitter Thursday. "Canada's economy is growing, our emissions are decreasing, and once fully implemented, our plan will deliver the largest reduction in projected emissions in our country's history.

We have a real plan to protect the environment and grow the economy – and it works. Canada's economy is growing, our emissions are declining, and once fully implemented, our plan will deliver the largest reduction in projected emissions in our country's history. pic.twitter.com/nm41hw4cNq

– Catherine McKenna ?? (@cathmckenna) November 29, 2018

The new study, published November 16 in the journal Nature Communications, badesses each country's ambitions and goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the temperature that would result if the world followed their lead. example. An additional data visualization website called Paris-Equity-Check.org presents these results.

The author of the study, Dr. Yann Robiou of the Bridge of the Austro-German University for Climate and Energy, said his goal was to inform politicians and climate leaders as the UN begins a two-year process to re-evaluate global climate commitments. Numerous studies have shown that the goal of 1.5-2 ° C set in the 2015 Paris Agreement was well below the set target.

The announced warming map provides an badessment of global warming when all countries follow the ambitions of a given country. The scale ranges from 1 degree (green) to 5 degrees (dark red). Graphic: Paris-equity-check.org

The talks will begin next week with a crucial two-week climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, known as COP 24.

The Paris Agreement has set 2018 as the deadline for all signatories to adopt a work program for the implementation of their emission reduction commitments, which will include a financial plan for the implementation of their emission reduction commitments. action for the climate in the world.

At the time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was committed to achieving an economic goal of reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 2005 levels of this year. 2030.

But, to meet the Paris Agreement, Canada should look to reduce its emissions by nearly 70%, said Robiou du Pont.

"The aggregation of countries' commitments is insufficient to limit global warming," said Robiou du Pont National observer in a phone call from Berlin. "Current policies and plans are not enough to meet the goals they have now, we need to discuss how they can increase their emissions reduction targets and, more importantly, reach their goals."

"This metric reflects the lack of ambition on a global scale nationwide," he said.

Many environmentalists have also criticized the government for not doing enough to combat climate change, including buying and promoting the West Coast Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project. increase emissions.

"We must be more strict about the collective goal"

As part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreements, each country is committed to taking steps to reduce its contribution to global warming, called nationally determined contributions. The Paris Agreement recognized that a top-down solution to global warming imposed by the UN or a similar organization would be ineffective; the bottom-up process for each country to set its own goals has therefore been adopted.

The commitment of each country would explain its historic contribution to global warming and its financial capacity to reduce the carbon emissions of its economy, and explain why its goal is "fair and ambitious", a mandate imposed by the world. Paris agreement.

"The problem is that different countries have different conceptions of what is right and ambitious," said Robiou du Pont. "There is no scale, no single metric to really see how ambitious each country is … there are as many metrics as there are visions of equity."

This makes it difficult to quantify and track emission reduction targets by 2030, he said. There is no consensus on what is a fair share of responsibility. rather, it is up to each country to set its own goals according to its own interests and measures.

This is why the study does not take into account emissions resulting from land-use changes, such as deforestation, as each country has a different standard and weight for climate-friendly activities. .

"You need a way to take into account the parameters," said Robiou du Pont. "You must have a universal measure of responsibility, capabilities and fairness to be effective."

The results show, however, that the efforts of international communities are, unsurprisingly, mediocre. At the present time, the emission reduction targets for the 2030s of the world's eight largest industrialized economies and China are 21% lower than what they should be to achieve. 1.5 ° C goal and 39% of all other countries.

To improve this, Robiou du Pont said each country needed to take stricter action to take decisive steps in mitigation, such as achieving net net emissions about 10 years earlier than its goals. for 2030.

"If we disagree on what is fair and each country chooses the least-stringent approach, we need to be more rigorous about the collective goal," he said, pointing out that the next step in his research was to calculate the defined emission targets. / provinces / territories could commit to respecting the Paris Agreement in each country.

Collectively, the results could then be used in climate-related climate-related disputes to hold governments to account for stronger climate action, such as the landmark 2015 case against the Dutch government, Urgenda Climate. the first in the world in which citizens and the courts have succeeded in making their government accountable for its contribution to dangerous climate change.

"Canada is definitely making the world fall"

The Paris stock study comes with several others that warn of dire consequences due to inadequate climate action policies around the world.

Two days ago, on November 27, a UN report also revealed that current emission targets for all countries would result in an average global temperature rise of 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

On Thursday, the World Meteorological Association found that the global average temperature for 2018 is expected to be the fourth highest ever recorded. The last four years have been the hottest ever recorded and the 20 warmest years have been recorded in the last 22 years.

"For each three – month period up to September 2018, the heat content of the ocean was the highest or the second highest ever recorded.The mean sea level from January to July 2018 was reported to be the highest. about 2 to 3 mm higher than the same period in 2017, "says the report. .

The average global temperature for 2018 is expected to be the 4th highest ever recorded, nearly 1 ° C higher than the pre – industrial era. https://t.co/YoaZ9hDXnY @WMOof the #Cloud State 2018 shows long-term #climate change continues, with the 4 hottest years ever recorded in the last 4 years. # COP24 pic.twitter.com/G6i7X9nGMO

– UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) November 29, 2018

In October, a study found that only five countries, including Canada, Russia, Australia, the United States and Brazil, were home to more than 70% of the remaining virgin nature areas of our planet. The World Wide Fund for Nature has also reported that wildlife populations worldwide have decreased by 60% over the past four decades.

Robiou du Pont said that the Paris agreement included many countries in this global effort to combat climate change. "But now we have to align the goals of all these countries, we need an indicator now," he said. "They did not agree on how to proceed, maybe this study will help."

He hopes the study will show how countries need to increase their ambitions. "We hope to see an increase in promises (for reducing emissions), including from Canada," he said. "The collective world is not enough to fight climate change, and Canada is taking down the world."

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