‘GHG emission reduction to help contain global warming’

Islamabad : Unless there are ‘immediate and deep’ greenhouse gas emission reductions across all sectors, the target of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius will be unachievable, warn climate change experts.

"To realise the 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway, global GHG emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 40 per cent by 2023 (compared to the 2019 level), while carbon dioxide emissions must reach net zero by early 2050s," said Dr. Hanaoka Tatsuya of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, during an online briefing on demand-side decarbonisation.

Dr. Tatsuya said that given global GHG emissions in 2030 associated with the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions announced prior to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, there was a likelihood that global warming would exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in the current century and it would become ‘harder’ after 2030 to limit warming below two degrees Celsius. He added that checking warming thereafter would depend on the acceleration of mitigation efforts.

The expert advocated the ‘coal phase-down’ saying the gradual decline in the use of coal and other fossil fuels to zero will reduce GHG emissions to prevent global warming and protect people's health as well as nature.

He said his country had planned to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and set the target of a 46 per cent cut in GHG emissions by 2030 with the help of technology. "The large-scale implementation of innovative technologies that are currently in the early stages of demonstration and deployment in our country will be essential after 2030 to achieve carbon neutrality. If these technologies aren't fully implemented by 2050, then the dream of decarbonised society will be elusive," he said.

Dr. Tatsuya said reduced energy service demand, improved energy efficiency, electrification, low-carbon energy, and negative emissions would help achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Sakai Yoshifumi of Japan's environment ministry, who was also present in the briefing, said the Japanese government had begun the New National Movement to promote "new and more prosperous" lifestyles in the country for decarbonisation.

He said in order to implement the NNM, national and local governments, businesses, organisations, and consumers would help people adopt new lifestyles in line with decarbonisation goals through the provision of analog and digital opportunities and support sites. The official said the NNM initiatives included making full use of digital technology, promoting comfortable ways of working and living such as teleworking, relocation to rural areas and workstations, offering products and services that supported lifestyles leading to decarbonisation, encouraging behavioural changes through incentives and effective dissemination of information, and suggesting and supporting region-specific lifestyles in line with the local climate and culture.

"We'll promote a new way of life that will be richer, more comfortable, and healthier for people in the next 10 years. It will simultaneously help achieve the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target," he said.