As COP26 Glasgow participants took up how to limit global warming, we picked up an interesting scenario of living in an increased 3°C temperature.
This year’s climate summit is the most important one since the COP21 in December 2015, when 196 parties signed the Paris Agreement. The agreement’s goal, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C compared to industrial levels. Achieving the Paris Agreement goal will require countries to peak their GHG emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate-neutral world by 2050 (The Paris Agreement, 2021).
But since the preindustrial levels, the world has already warmed by 1°C resulting in climate disasters worldwide. The United Nations estimates that to keep warming under 1.5°C, countries must reach net-zero gas emissions by 2050.
The COP 26 climate summit aims to keep the 1.5°C target alive. In the words of Alok Sharma, COP26 President, during his opening address, he referred to the summit as “the last, best hope to keep 1.5 in reach (‘Last, Best Hope, 2021).
But plans that countries have submitted will not achieve the 1.5°C goals. According to the 2021 United Nations Emissions Gap Report, current pledges will put the world on a path to a disastrous 2.7°C degree temperature increase.
[...]