Countries’ climate plans are getting marginally closer to meeting the Paris Agreement warming goals, but actual policies to achieve those plans are falling vastly short.
A report this week from the research group Climate Action Tracker found that the growth of renewable energy over the past several years has been effectively canceled out, emissions-wise, by the parallel growth of fossil fuels.
As a result, global emissions in 2030 are on track to be nearly twice as high as they would need to be to stay within 1.5°C of warming, with the gap widening over time.
The study underscores that the non-binding nature of the Paris Agreement leaves a huge loophole for countries to underdeliver on their promises — and even those go nowhere near far enough.
