Fourteen years ago, on this day, March 13, 2010 – The first “emissions gap” report was released by the United Nations Environment Program.
These annual emissions gap report started out answering the question “are the Copenhagen accord pledges sufficient to limit global warming to 2c or 1.5c”
(Spoiler – “No.” What are you, on glue or something?)
13 March 2010 https://www.unep.org/resources/report/emissions-gap-report-are-copenhagen-accord-pledges-sufficient-limit-global-warming
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 391.3ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the UNFCCC process had been supposed to be doing a victory lap about now. With the triumphant Copenhagen Deal to replace the Kyoto deal with increased ambition, on mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology transfer. That had not happened. Presumably the United Nations Emissions Gap report had been conceived and researched and planned before the Copenhagen failure; they don’t tend to whip this stuff out in a little over three months, takes more time.
What we learn is that there can be an, er, “gap” between what you think your documents can be and what they end up being, thanks to the environment they are ultimately released into. As the saying goes – how do you make the gods laugh? Tell them your plants.
What happened next? UNEP, which was set up in the aftermath of 1972 Stockholm conference has released an Emissions Gap report every year since then, In 2017, for the first time, carbon dioxide removals were included. The gap, by the way, just keeps getting bigger and bigger and will because the emissions are climbing. We’re all gonna die. And we’re going to take a hell of a lot of other species down with us.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
March 13, 1989 – UK Energy Department shits all over everyone’s future by dissing Toronto Target
March 13, 1992 – Australian climate advocates try to get government to see sense… (fail, obvs).March 13, 2001 – Bush breaks election promise to regulate C02 emissions…