The emissions gap: what the latest numbers say about 1.5 degrees

Each year the UN's environment programme compares what countries have promised with what they are doing. The latest report finds the gap has barely narrowed, and that global emissions reached a new high. [1]

Holding warming to 1.5 degrees would now require cuts of around forty per cent by 2030, a pace no large economy has managed.

What the science says is still possible

The IPCC's synthesis makes the point that every tenth of a degree matters and that the tools exist: the costs of renewables, efficiency and electrification have fallen enough that most of the needed cuts pay for themselves over time. [2]