Source: WRAL
According to a new UN-backed report catastrophic global warming is quickly approaching unless immediate and radical action is taken.
The Earth has already warmed more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the industrial revolution and is likely to surpass the 2.7-degree warming limit set in the Paris Agreement within the next decade, according to the report.
International leaders are sounding the alarm that the world may be nearing its last chance to prevent surpassing the dangerous climate threshold and encouraging developed nations to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. A full ten years earlier than the current goals of the United States.
There is hope however, the UN report says there is still a chance to change course by cutting greenhouse emissions in half by 2030, a goal already adopted by North Carolina last January in Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 246.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality reported that gross greenhouse gas emissions were reduced in NC by 16% and net greenhouse gas emissions by 23% between 2005 and 2013. During this same time period, North Carolina’s population grew by nearly 20%.
UNC-Chapel Hill environmental science professor Jason West told WRAL that he thinks the current Carbon Plan is a step forward, but the state could be doing more. “We can be more aggressive and reduce more quickly, having North Carolina play its role in helping to achieve national and international targets of where we want to see emissions go,” he said.
“We have the science, we have the tools, we even have the money, but what we really need is political will,” said Cassie Flynn, United Nations Development Program Head of Climate Policy and Strategies. “And we need public support for those big decisions that have to be made to transform an economy.”
Read More at WRAL.
