UN reports 'bleak' findings on global greenhouse gas emissions
Courtesy/Hsiang, Kopp, et. al/Science
Worcester County is among many across the northern part of the country that would benefit from climate change, researchers say.
Massachusetts is trending toward its long-term greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, but the effort to reduce global emissions is failing, according to a new United Nations report.
"The summary findings are bleak," the UN reported in the tenth edition of its emissions gap report. "Countries collectively failed to stop the growth in global GHG emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required."
The report, prepared by scientists who assessed "all available information," concluded that greenhouse gas emissions have risen at a rate of 1.5 percent per year in the last decade, and total greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2018. Emissions from energy use and industry grew 2 percent in 2018.
The UN said there's a growing political focus on "the climate crisis" in several countries, driven in part by protests, and that "technologies for rapid and cost-effective emission reductions have improved significantly."
The report lends perspective to ongoing efforts in Massachusetts to increase power production from renewable energy sources, bend the emissions curve from the energy, buildings and transportation sectors, and meet the emissions reduction requirements of the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act. Gov. Charlie Baker is among a group of governors pursuing a market-based program to cap transportation sector emissions, an effort that will likely lead to higher gas prices.
Knocking President Trump for pulling the U.S. out of an emissions reductions pact reached in Paris, Sen. Edward Markey said the report means "we have to cut emissions now — five times faster than we promised in Paris — in order to protect the promise of a livable future."
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