New climate report: about 2.7 degrees warmer

Every year, researchers in the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) evaluate the climate policies of countries around the world. This year’s report shows that policy does not meet promises to achieve the Paris Agreement target of a maximum temperature increase of 1.5 degrees.

– The climate becomes completely wild during the year with record temperatures, storms and drought. But when it comes to climate policy, unfortunately not much has happened. Globally, we’re still seeing the same temperature increase as we saw two years ago, and that’s catastrophic, says Niklas Hone, a climate scientist at the New Climate Institute.

If countries implement what they promised at the United Nations in the next few years, temperature rises could be limited to 2.5 degrees by the end of this century. It is 0.1 notches higher than the assessment two years ago, mainly due to Indonesia’s increased emissions from coal power.

But under current policy, temperatures will rise to 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

The President of the COP is questioned

The main question at the climate meeting in Dubai is whether it is possible to agree to phase out fossil fuels one way or another.

The chair of the meeting, Sultan Al Jaber, is the head of one of the oil companies that faced harsh criticism. It was reinforced this weekend when it emerged that Al Jaber said in a heated, unscripted exchange that there was “no science” behind demands to phase out oil in order to reach climate targets. This was immediately met by scholars as incorrect.

How did this affect his credibility at COP28?

– Many thought that it would take someone like him to influence the oil-producing countries. Hopes for achieving this are now much lower. The statement revealed its true intentions, which appear to be aimed at prolonging the life of fossil fuels, says Niklas Hone.

Al Jaber has said in the past He said he had misunderstood.

– This is the first presidency ever to actively encourage parties to propose language to phase out fossil fuels in the agreement, he said at a press conference on Monday.