UN expresses concern over climate change; says pledges still off track to limit temperature rise

The United Nations (UN) has expressed concern over rising temperature and said that the nations’ current climate pledges are far off track to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It cautioned that this will steer the world towards “catastrophic” warming. 

The climate change organisation of the United Nations said combined commitments from about 200 countries put the globe on track to warm around 2.5C compared to pre-industrial levels by the century’s end. To curb greenhouse gas emissions the world is failing to act with sufficient urgency, experts say. The planet is already shaken by weather extremes after 1.2C of warming.

The world was nowhere near the scale of emission reductions required to put it on track toward 1.5 degrees Celsius, said UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell. The goal of limiting warming to 1.5C was still within reach, stressed UN chief Antonio Guterres. However, he warned that the current behaviour of countries’ climate commitments was “catastrophic”.

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In a related but separate development, on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the mantra of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle for sustainable development and reaffirmed India’s commitment to tackle the menace of climate change. The PM said people of the country are experiencing the ill effects of climate change and maintained that the issue goes beyond the realm of policy-making. 

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The PM and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched ‘Mission LiFE’, a global plan of action aimed at saving the world from the disastrous consequences of climate change. 

The PM asked individuals to adopt the concept of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle and circular economy and said India is dedicated to tackling the threat of climate change. The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, repairing, reusing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as attainable. It entails markets that give incentives to reuse products, rather than scrapping them and then extracting new resources.