The current and next two presidents of the United Nations COP climate conferences have called on world leaders to step up efforts to combat global warming, reports Euronews. The three insisted that the new national plans be aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1,5C from pre-industrial levels, cover entire national economies and include all heat-trapping gases.
"The world is not on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We are faced with an urgent need to achieve deep, rapid and sustainable reductions in emissions, including through a transition from fossil fuels," said Mukhtar Babayev, who takes over as head of international negotiations in November when Azerbaijan hosts the UN climate conference.
"Roadmap to Mission 1.5"
In a two-hour session during the UN General Assembly, Babayev and his colleagues from the UAE and Brazil pushed their "Roadmap to Mission 1.5".
Nations around the world have a deadline in five months to create new national targets to reduce carbon pollution. The three SOR leaders want new national plans more in line with the 1,5C limit.
Representing the small island nations, Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa said she appreciated the pressure and pointed out that countries like hers did not cause the climate problem but were cutting their gas emissions.
"Unfortunately, we do not see the same level of ambition from the countries most responsible for the current crisis," she added.
Climate action by the UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil is failing
Longtime climate talks analysts Alden Meyer of the E3G think tank and Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, which tracks emissions commitments, said negotiators from the UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil tended to turn up the rhetoric, but the actions of their own nations have fallen behind many times over.
"Representatives of the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil did not specify how their countries would divest from fossil fuels. Rather, all three nations are pushing ahead with massive new investments in oil and gas production, making efforts to keep the 1,5C limit realistic even more difficult. That's not what real leadership looks like,” says Meyer.
"In its latest update, Azerbaijan actually weakened its target," Hare argued.
A recent analysis by Climate Action Tracker found that the country's total greenhouse gas emissions are expected to continue to rise by about 20 percent until 2030. The expert group also says that Azerbaijan is one of a "small group" of countries that appear to be weakened their targets in national climate plans for 2023.
"These three countries, all ranked among the world's leading oil and gas producing countries, are also on track to increase their combined oil and gas production by a third by 2035," the Oil policy manager also points out Change International Romain Joualalen.