"In order to reach the 2C goal, global carbon intensity would have to be cut by an average of 6 per cent a year, the report says, but last year’s global cut was only 1.2 per cent, meaning the planet is on track to warm by 4C by the end of the century."
Emerging economies outpace G7 on tackling climate change
China, India and other big emerging economies have outpaced the Group of Seven of rich nations for the first time on a closely watched measure of how countries are tackling climate change.
The so-called E7 group of the seven major emerging economies, which include the world’s biggest manufacturing centres, cut their carbon intensity – carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of gross domestic product – by an average of 1.7 per cent last year.
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The G7, which includes the US, Germany and Japan, managed only a 0.2 per cent reduction, according to the latest annual ranking of countries’ carbon intensity by PwC, the professional services firm.
“This, if continued, is a critical development,” said PwC, which has been analysing global carbon intensity performances for the past six years.
But, collectively, countries are still not doing nearly enough to limit global warming to levels scientists say are safe, it warns.
Carbon intensity is a measure of whether countries can boost economic growth while slowing the CO2 emissions produced by burning fossil fuels, which causes global warming.
Until this year, G7 countries have consistently outpaced big emerging economies, which have become such large manufacturing hubs that the total CO2 emissions of the E7 are now 1.5 bigger than those of the G7.
China is the world’s biggest single emitter, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of global carbon emissions, although it has a flourishing renewable energy sector and is planning tougher measures on coal use.
Such efforts are vital if global emissions are to be cut to the levels needed to prevent global temperatures from rising beyond 2C, compared with the pre-industrial era, a target world leaders agreed nearly five years ago in UN climate talks. But carbon emissions have continued to soar and the PwC report underlines how distant that target has become.
In order to reach the 2C goal, global carbon intensity would have to be cut by an average of 6 per cent a year, the report says, but last year’s global cut was only 1.2 per cent, meaning the planet is on track to warm by 4C by the end of the century.
“A 6 per cent reduction doesn’t sound that dramatic but it’s never been achieved globally and we need to sustain that rate for decades,” said Jonathan Grant, PwC’s director of sustainability and climate change.
“What we’re saying in this report is there is an increasing gap between the talk of two degrees and the reality of what we are on track for,” he said.
Individual countries have made sharp annual reductions in carbon intensity in the past, including the US, as the result of its shale gas boom, and France, when it shifted to nuclear power.
Strong growth in wind and solar farms mean renewables accounted for almost 22 per cent of global electricity generation in 2013, but fossil fuels continue to dominate in transport and heavy industries such as steel and cement making.
World leaders are preparing to agree a global pact on reducing emissions at a summit in Paris next year and the UN is holding a climate summit in New York this month in an effort to encourage progress. But it is unclear how many leaders of large countries will attend the summit, apart from President Barack Obama of the US and François Hollande, the French leader.
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