A Cop26 poster in Glasgow, Scotland
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the climate change presents a serious threat to macroeconomic and financial stability. Policymakers attending Cop26 must address critical gaps in ambition and policy to achieve emissions curbs that can help to contain global warming.
The window of opportunity for limiting global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C above pre-industrial levels is closing rapidly, the fund said in a note late on Sunday, the first day of the Cop26 meeting of world leaders in Glasgow.
The Paris Agreement provides a mandate for countries to lower their carbon emissions to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, preferably at about 1.5°C.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said, “Unchanged global policies will leave 2030 carbon emissions far higher than needed to keep 1.5°C alive.”
“Cuts of 55 percent below baseline levels in 2030 would be immediately needed to meet that goal and of 30 per cent to meet the 2°C objective.”
World leaders at the conference will aim to reinforce commitments made in Paris in 2015 to stabilize the planet’s climate and look to accelerate action to achieve a zero-carbon future by 2050.
Limiting global warming to the Paris Agreement mandate needs cutting global carbon emissions by 25 percent to 50 percent below 2021 levels by 2030, followed by a steady decline to net-zero emissions near the middle of this century, the Washington-based lender said.