UN tells governments to ‘speed up’ net zero targets

António Guterres said leaders of the rich G20 countries should aim for net zero “as close as possible” to 2040, while developing countries should set targets by 2050.

The head of the United Nations called on the G20 countries to significantly advance their net zero targets.

Speaking at a press conference marking the release of a major new climate science report, António Guterres said he is launching a “universal acceleration program” that “begins with parties immediately hitting the fast-forward button on their zero deadlines.” reach global net zero by 2050.”

Guterres called the latest IPCC report “a guide to disarming the climate time bomb.” “This is a survival guide for mankind. As you can see, a limit of 1.5 degrees is achievable. But it will make a quantum leap in the fight against climate change.”

To do this, he called on developed country leaders to reach net zero “as close to 2040 as possible” and said emerging economies should aim for 2050. It was the first time he made such a call.

“It can be done,” Guterres said, as some governments have already set targets for those dates.

But the vast majority of G20 countries have set weaker targets; only four of the 19 match Guterres’ proposals.

These four countries – Argentina, Brazil, South Korea and South Africa – are emerging economies that have set net-zero targets for 2050.

China, the world’s biggest polluter, aims to reach zero by 2060, India by 2070, and Indonesia has yet to set a target.

Of the eight wealthy countries in the G20, none have set targets for zero emissions by 2040. Germany aims for 2045 and the rest for 2050.

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In 2019, the UK government’s independent climate advisers concluded that they “do not currently consider the aspiration to reach zero emissions earlier than 2050 to be credible”.

But Greg Mattitt, co-author of a recent paper on energy transition patterns, told Climate Home that Guterres’ timeline is “definitely possible.”

“Of course, there is no physical or technical reason why not. And even the economic costs of a faster transition are small compared to the costs of climate damage. The main barrier is political will,” he said.

He said a net zero by 2040 would see some fossil fuel assets close earlier than planned, resulting in losses for their operators, but “they took that risk consciously” by building the facilities high carbon “in the face of climate change”.

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According to the Net Zero Tracker, the closest net zero target in the world is Finland’s date of 2035.

While most net zero targets are calculated based on how fast the economy can transition, Finland was calculated based on the country’s fair share of the amount of carbon dioxide that could still be emitted globally while maintaining global warming at 1.5 °C

The same analysis showed that in order to fairly limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Germany and the EU must reach zero in the early to mid-2030s.

Guterres also called on countries to stop funding new fossil fuels and achieve zero electricity generation by 2035 in the developed world and by 2040 in the rest of the world.

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