Climate Change Emissions May Rise Too High Despite Carbon Goals

Carbon emissions may be rising too high, despite goals. Scientists have found that while the world's countries have announced targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, more ambitious emission reductions are needed to limit global warming to two degrees.

"The rate of emission reductions required after 2030 might not be realistic anymore, and therefore it is critically important to make the current emission targets for 2030 more ambitious," said Tommi Ekholm, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In this latest study, the researchers examined emission reduction targets from 159 countries. They looked out how large a reduction or increase in emissions is implied by each country's stated target, the level of global greenhouse gas emissions around 2030 implied by the targets, and the prospects of limiting global warming below two degrees Celsius.

The countries that have set an emissions reduction target represent more than 90 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, 89 percent of the global population and 95 percent of the economic production.

With the current targets, the EU's emissions per person would decrease by one third to 5.9 tons of carbon dioxide. The fourth largest emitter is the population-rich India, whose emissions per person would double to 4.2 tons of carbon dioxide.

The findings also show that despite these targets, emission will continue to increase up to 2030. What's important to note that the global temperature increase can be kept below the critical two-degree limit only if drastic emission reductions are carried out after 2030.

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