A report today showed that while the window to limit human-caused warming to a globally-agreed goal is narrowing, it is still open because of the huge growth of solar energy and electric vehicles sales worldwide, according to the Associated Press.
For the last two years, the rate of the build up of solar energy and electric vehicle sales were in line with achieving emissions reductions targets that will help cap warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
Renewable power needs to triple by 2030, however; the sale of EVs needs to rise much more sharply to make up 70% of all vehicle sales as opposed to the current 13%; and methane emissions from the energy sector need to fall by 75% if global warming is to be curbed to the the Paris Agreement goal. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.
Investments in climate action also need to rise, from $1.8 trillion in 2023 to $4.5 trillion annually by the early 2030s, the report said. It found that solar power capacity increased nearly 50% in the last two years, and electric car sales increased by 240%, but carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector — which includes the production of coal, oil, and gas — remain worryingly high, reaching a new record of 37 gigatons last year.
Nearly five gigatons of carbon dioxide would have to be removed from the atmosphere every year during the second half of this century if countries don’t drastically reduce emissions to recommended levels, the IEA said.
Tripling renewables by 2030 and making energy more efficient so it emits less CO2 are goals that the hosts of the next global climate summit in Dubai in late November and December this year have also laid out for the upcoming talks.
