(GERMANY)
Emissions are creeping upwards, according to a new report.
As international leaders gather for the last week of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, the report from the Global Carbon Project, a body chaired by Stanford scientist Rob Jackson, shows the pressing need for even stronger leadership – and greater investment – worldwide to tackle emissions.
The report says, that after three years of ‘flat growth’ fossil fuel emissions globally are once again on the rise, with 2017 set to be the worst ever, posting emission numbers of 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
Rob Jackson, though, said that while “this year’s result is discouraging” he “remains hopeful”.
And it is the increasing adoption of renewable energy technologies which fuels much of this optimism.
“Prices for wind and solar power are plummeting, and batteries and storage are helping to balance supply and demand for electricity,” added Jackson. “The world’s energy future is changing before our eyes.”
And the message coming out of COP23 is pretty clear – it is time to ramp up the renewables revolution.
“We have the solutions at hand,” Al Gore told delegates at COP23, and industry stakeholders are now pushing for governments to do more to harness these solutions.
