Ten years since the Paris Climate Change Agreement by COP21, the COP30 is meeting under torrential rain in the Amazonian Jungle, in the city of Belém, Brazil to discuss climate change targets. The conference hall was yesterday was stormed by protestors from the Tupinamba indigenous tribes in the Amazon who protested against the encroachment of their lands and their lack of participation at the conference. The Conference is gathering after world leaders met on November 6-7th.
During the the Paris Climate Change Conference, major powers and leaders, including China, had agreed to keep global temperature increases below 1.5°C and well below 2°C. However, we are set to achieve a 2.6–3.1°C increase in global temperature at the current pace by 2100. UN reports state that in order to achieve this goal, carbon emissions need to go down by up to 45% by 2030 or fall to 2010 levels. According to the Paris Climate Change Conference targets, we have to reach net-zero levels of carbon emissions between 2050 and 2100. All of these targets look unrealistic at the current pace.
The biggest emitters of carbon-emissions are China and India after the West has heavily decreased its carbon emissions. Carbon emissions in Europe are declining significantly and likewise the US is also significantly reducing its carbon-emissions.
On the other hand, China’s carbon-emissions have been increasing steadily year-on-year and so have India’s. The challenge with reducing carbon emissions is that Western nations, which are already doing their part, need to convince China, India and developing nations to adopt cleaner sources of energy.
Feature photo by Anderson Coelho of Reuters.
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