UN says emission cuts are ‘economically feasible’

A UNITED Nations report has said it is “technically and economically feasible” to cut emissions by 2020 to levels that put the world on track to keep global warming below the 2C climate change targets.

However, the UN said that “time is short” to bridge the gap between the scale of greenhouse gas reductions promised by countries and what is needed to effectively tackle climate change.

The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) report said changes to energy supplies would be key to keeping the world on track to reduce emissions enough to stop rises of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels – widely seen as the threshold for avoiding “dangerous” climate change. The UN’s chief climate official, Christiana Figueres, said: “This study again reminds us that efforts to address climate change are currently insufficient.

“But it also shows that it is possible for governments to bridge the gap between what they promised and what needs to be done to stay below a 2C average global temperature rise.

“Time is short, so we need to optimise the tools in hand.”

She said that, at the UN talks in Durban, governments needed to sort out the future of the existing climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol; define the route to a new agreement; launch the institutions which will pay to help poor countries cope with climate change and set out a path to delivering the needed funding.