UNEP Warns on Rising Global Warming, Urges Businesses to Spearhead Climate Action

* Says $7trn annual financing needed to end global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

*Mean temperature projected to rise by 3.9 Celsius 

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja 

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has raised the alarm on the rate of global warming, saying it is likely to be higher than Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates, given that the earth is heating up faster than previously predicted.

In its latest Global Environment Outlook report, UNEP warned that the planet is set to warm by 2.4C to 3.9C by the end of the century under “existing policies and practices”.

According to the report, temperatures have risen by an average of 1.3C above pre-industrial level, breaching the 1.5C limit during warmer months, and are expected to reach between 2.4C and 3.9C by the end of the century under “existing policies and practices”.

It observed that climate change, biodiversity, desertification and pollution are all off track to meet international agreement.

The UN agency stated that businesses must play an active role in the absence of political leadership.

The report explained that global mean temperatures are projected to increase by 2.4C to 3.9C above pre-industrial levels this century.

It added that the global temperature is set to rise well above the 1.5C threshold set out in the Paris Agreement.

Co-chair of the report, Robert Watson,

said businesses could play a “crucial” role in curbing planetary destruction in the absence of political leadership.

UNEP in the latest edition (the seventh) of the outlook is the “most comprehensive scientific environmental assessment ever carried out” and involved the input of 287 scientists from 82 countries.

The Paris Agreement is not the only environmental agreement whose goals are not in reach. 

The aims of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and the World Health Organization (WHO) air pollution standards are all unlikely to be met, the report stated.

It also warned that the rate of global warming in the next few decades is likely to be higher than estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, given that the earth is heating up faster than previously predicted.

“Nothing is going in the right direction on the global scale,” said Watson, in a media briefing ahead of the report’s launch. 

The four planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and pollution are all interlinked and worsening,” he added.

The only way of changing course is through “unprecedented, innovative actions”, he said.

To end environmentally harmful subsidies, the report recommended a number of measures to make the world more sustainable. 

First, it underlined the need to transform the economic system, including by eliminating the $1.5 trillion spent annually by governments on environmentally harmful subsidies across the energy, food and mining sectors.

It also noted that “social and environmental externalities” must be reflected in the price of all goods and services, adding that for the energy and food sectors, this would mean pricing in an additional combined $45 trillion a year. 

New social safety nets would need to be put in place to ensure the poorest in society can afford food and energy, it said, even as it called for global economic systems to move beyond exclusively measuring GDP, and to factor “natural capital and human wellbeing” into financial decision-making.

The size of the investment needed in the transition was also underlined by the report, which urged public and private financiers to deliver an estimated $6 trillion–$7 trillion a year of investment if the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions globally by 2050 is to be achieved. 

A further $700 billion a year is needed to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, said UNEP.

It explained that the sooner all this happens, the better, adding that acting on climate change now could save $20 trillion in avoided losses before 2070, not including nature loss and land degradation.

Urging businesses to step up, Watson noted that they could play a “crucial” role in all of this, adding that: “Some of the more visionary companies are more likely to act at this time, rather than some governments.” 

He said many businesses already recognise the economic and physical risks associated with climate change, and can act on them.

The report suggested that companies should focus on implementing circular materials use, decarbonising and developing regenerative business models.