‘Carbon conscious regions generate half of world’s GDP’

New Delhi: Nearly half of the worlds gross domestic product (GDP) is now generated in places where authorities have set or are proposing to set a target of bringing carbon emissions to net-zero in or before 2050, an international report said on Tuesday.

A new analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a London-based think-tank, showed that just over $39 trillion, about 49 per cent of the world’s annual GDP, derives from nations, regions and cities with an actual or intended net-zero target. These include 121 nations.

The source of the data is ECIU’s Net Zero online tracker. The findings were released ahead of the UK hosting the crucial UN Climate Summit (COP26) in Glasgow in November.

The figures represent a tripling of global net-zero ambition in the eight months since ECIU launched its tracker.

The list includes places with net-zero targets at various levels of development: Where the target is under active political discussion, where leaders have made a political declaration, where legislation is under development and where it has been enacted — and from two countries that are already carbon-negative.

ECIU Director Richard Black said: “It’s extraordinary that just 18 months from the IPCC report that showed the scientific case for reaching global net-zero emissions by 2050, nations, regions and cities representing virtually half of global GDP have set compatible goals.

“The majority of these targets just targets. But still, it shows how quickly policymakers are grasping the science, and — in the case of cities and regions — deciding to act themselves when their national governments will not.” In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN organisation that collates and analyses climate science for governments, showed that in order to have a 50 per cent chance of keeping global warming to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, global carbon emissions need to reach net-zero by 2050. (IANS)

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