A new report that assessed the plausibility of achieving the emissions reductions necessary to limit temperatures in line with the Paris Agreement has shown that Corporations and consumers constitute the main obstacle to the emissions cuts needed to keep global warming to the 1.5 degree Celsius limit.
Undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, the report found that “positive signs” in other areas are not yet enough to meet climate goals.
It warned unless societies stepped up their efforts to cut emissions, staying within the 1.5 degree Celsius goal would remain elusive.
“We see all kinds of positive signs, for example, the political protests, divestment decisions, climate litigation cases, transnational initiatives, this is all on the rise,” said one of the study authors Anita Engels. “So you could think that we are really on a good track.”
Engels however added that there was a need to do more than has already been done for the Paris Agreement to be met.
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To come up with the report, researchers looked at 10 societal factors that they considered to be the most important drivers of decarbonisation and found that currently, none are yet at a level that would lead to the dramatic emissions reductions needed by 2050.
By using global databases and computer modelling, they found that seven social trends that include the United Nations climate governance, regulation, litigation, and divestment from fossil fuels, were moving tentatively in the right direction
But the two heading in the wrong direction were corporate responses and consumption patterns, which the researchers said: “continue to undermine the pathways to decarbonisation”.
“The two are closely interlinked,” said Engels. “It would be so much easier if the way the products are produced is regulated in a way that (consumers) are not forced to buy climate destructive products,”.
Story was adapted from Channels News Asia.
