The sixth annual Low Carbon Economy Index report from professional services firm PwC underlines the urgency to significantly boost global ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also the need for stronger government policy to encourage the positive trends that do exist.
The report finds that the world's major economies are falling further behind every year in meeting the rate of carbon emission reductions needed to stop global temperatures from rising above the internationally agreed maximum 2 degrees Celsius this century.
However, the report underlines two important grounds for optimism. First, the fact that emerging economies such as China, India and Mexico have recently been cutting their carbon intensity at a faster rate than industrialized countries such as the United States, Japan and the European Union.
Second, underpinning these improvements is the rapid growth of renewables across both developed and developing economies. As some renewables approach cost parity with fossil fuels, the stage is set for a policy framework that could further accelerate the development of renewables. The report underlines that these two emerging trends show that climate action can be complementary to growth.
PwC's Jonathan Grant said:
“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.”
Entitled "Two degrees of separation: ambition and reality," the report states that projections of commitments offered by countries under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the period to 2020 suggest that they would, at best, lead us down a three degrees warming pathway.
Timely Reminder Before UN Climate Summit
The report comes in the run up to a critical series of climate negotiations starting with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's climate summit in New York on 23 September, which seeks to galvanize greater climate action. This will be followed by the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima in December this year that will pave the way for a global climate change agreement to be reached in Paris in December 2015.