UNEP report highlights emissions gap

5 November 2013. In its annual Emissions Gap Report, UNEP (November 2013, 37 pages) says that countries' existing emission pledges, if fully implemented, will help reduce emissions to below the business-as-usual level in 2020, but not to a level consistent with the 2°C limit, thus leaving a considerable and growing "emissions gap".

To help bridge the gap, the European Union will be pressing at Warsaw climate conference for progress towards concrete measures to raise the ambition of near-term global climate action in order to cut world emissions further before 2020.

The Report presents the latest estimates of the emissions gap in 2020 and provides plentiful information about:

• current (2010) and projected (2020) levels of global greenhouse gas emissions, both in the absence of additional policies and consistent with national pledge implementation
• the implications of starting decided emission reductions now or in the coming decades
• agricultural development policies that can help increase yields, reduce fertilizer usage and bring about other benefits, while reducing emissions of greenhouse gases
• international cooperative initiatives that, while potentially overlapping with pledges, can complement them and help bridge the emissions gap