The environmental association Zero today called for a “real climate effort” in response to a UN report that concluded the world had failed to meet the target of keeping global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“We have missed the opportunity to avoid breaching 1.5°C. We cannot miss the opportunity to prevent a world of 2.8°C. Every tenth of a degree counts,” says Zero – Sustainable Earth System Association in a statement.
The annual report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on greenhouse gas emissions released today states that the 1.5-degree limit of global warming has already been surpassed and that “with current policies, the world is on a path to 2.8°C by 2100.”
Zero, however, adds that this “does not mean giving up on the Paris Agreement,” signed in 2015 at the UN climate conference, with the commitment by countries worldwide to prevent global temperatures from rising above 2°C relative to pre-industrial times, and that preferably this increase should not exceed 1.5°C.
“Every tenth of a degree avoided, and every year less above that threshold, reduces risks to health, water, food production and ecosystems,” says Zero.
Considering that “mitigation and adaptation are inseparable,” the association argues that, in the first case, “Portugal must accelerate the implementation of the Climate Base Law and the National Plan for Energy and Climate, with targets, responsible parties, budgets and verifiable results.”
In the area of transport, “responsible for around 35% of national emissions in 2024,” the association demands “a structural shift: more rail and public transport, less dependence on cars, and prioritised electrification of high-use fleets and freight transport.”
It also calls for tackling energy poverty and supporting an industry less dependent on fossil fuels.
“In energy, it is essential to accelerate the deployment of well-located renewables that are compatible with biodiversity, strengthen grids, interconnections, storage and demand management, and assess phasing out fossil-gas in electricity production by 2035,” adds Zero in the statement.
Portugal also needs to “prepare for more heat waves, droughts, rural fires, extreme rainfall and coastal erosion,” the environmental association notes, arguing that the National Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change 2030 requires funding, timelines, targets and binding integration into land-use planning.
The global and European priority should be the definition of a fair, time-bound and financed roadmap for the phase-out of coal, oil and fossil gas, accompanied by the rapid expansion of solar and wind energy, energy efficiency and electrification.
Zero recommends that the European Union strengthen the implementation of climate policies and support the most vulnerable countries, as well as bring to COP31, the 31st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which takes place next month in Turkey, “concrete results, including delivering on the commitment to triple renewable capacity and double the pace of improving energy efficiency by 2030.”
In a message about the UNEP report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres states that “failing to meet the target does not mean giving up. We can still keep it as brief and as tight as possible—and bring temperatures back to below 1.5 degrees by the end of the century.”
