by Xinhua writers Jin Jing, Zhang
Jiawei, Zhang Zhang
KATOWICE, Poland, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) --
Climate activists have called for bold and rapid actions by world leaders to
tackle climate change as a report showed Wednesday that global carbon emissions
are set to hit an all-time high in 2018.
According to researchers at the
University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Global Carbon Project, global carbon
emissions are expected to reach 37.1 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2018.
The 2018 global emission is expected to
rise by more than 2 percent from last year, driven by a solid growth in coal
use and sustained growth in oil and gas use, said the report, urging actions by
governments at the ongoing 24th Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Katowice.
CALLS FOR ACTION
"To limit global warming to the
Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C, CO2 emissions would need to decline by 50
percent by 2030 and reach net zero by around 2050," said lead researcher
Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research
and Professor of Climate Change Science and Policy at UEA.
"We are a long way from this and
much more needs to be done," Le Quere said.
CO2 emissions have now risen for a
second year, after three years of little-to-no growth from 2014 to 2016,
according to the report.
"The growing global demand for
energy is outpacing decarbonisation for now," said Le Quere, "We need
strong policy and economic support for rapid deployment of low carbon
technologies to cut emissions across the energy and transport sectors, from
buildings and from industry."
The two-week COP24, which opened Sunday,
aims to finalize the implementation guidelines of the landmark Paris deal and
provide clarity on how to carry out the accord fairly for all participating
countries.
Adopting the guidelines is crucial for
putting the Paris deal into practice as it will enable and encourage climate
actions at all levels worldwide and demonstrate the global commitment to
tackling the pressing challenge.
While countries including China and
France are fully committed to finalizing the guidelines, a great deal of work
remains to be done in Katowice.
CHINA TAKES THE LEAD
Despite grave concerns over rising
emissions, the research team say energy trends are changing with coal use
decreasing in many parts of the world and an explosion in wind and solar
energy.
The report noted that even though
China's emissions have grown an estimated 4.7 percent in 2018, its energy from
renewables is growing by 25 percent per year.
Thanks to increased investment in green
energy, China's carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per
unit of GDP, declined by 46 percent by 2017 from 2005 levels, meeting the
target ahead of schedule of a 40-45 percent drop by 2020, according to the
latest report by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
According to Xie Zhenhua, China's
special representative for climate change, China is well positioned to meet the
target of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and even accomplishing that
sooner than planned.
Not only has China takes the
implementation of the Paris Agreement as an inherent part of its own
sustainable development, it is also taking solid actions to help developing
countries deal with climate challenges.
China has in 2015 pledged a package of
3.1 billion U.S. dollars to the South-South Cooperation Fund on Climate Change
for developing countries.
It has also donated energy conserving or
renewable-energy facilities as well as climate change surveillance instruments,
and provided funds, technologies and capacity building to the least developed
countries, small-island countries and African countries.
In the just concluded G20 summit, China,
along with France, reaffirmed its highest political commitment to the effective
and transparent implementation of the Paris Agreement.
COMMON BUT DIFFERENTIATED
RESPONSIBILITIES
Among the ten biggest emitters in 2018,
five are developed countries, namely the United States, Japan, Germany, South
Korea and Canada, according to the UEA report.
Emissions in the United States account
for 15 percent of the global total, and set to have grown about 2.5 percent in
2018, said the report.
"While renewables are rising fast,
it is not yet enough to reverse global emissions trends. The rapid actions
needed to address climate change also need to be fair to all generations,"
Le Quere said.
"Fair mean responsibility. It means
equity. It means that the poor must not pay the price of the adjustments.
Everybody has to take action but the poor should not be burdened," said
Meenakshi Raman, legal advisor of Coordinator Climate Change Programme for
Third World Network, an independent non-profit research and advocacy
organization.
Much of the climate challenges the world
is facing today are largely because many developed countries did not have the
constraint on carbon emissions, she said, adding that the developed countries
are not doing enough in accordance with their responsibilities in this regard.
Meanwhile, China, as the world's largest
developing country, is showing "real leadership" in tackling climate
change, she said.
(Xinhua reporters Shi Zhongyu also
contributed to this story)