A new assessment published today finds that the climate policy announcements of the past three months have become more ambitious and most aim for a global temperature rise of no more than 1.8°C.
Imperative Policy Response (IPR), which describes itself as the Climate Transformation Prediction Consortium, has been tracking government and private-sector climate policies since the UN climate summit in November 2021, and assesses declarations on their credibility and ambition.
The final three-month period from October to January was the most ambitious yet, IPR said, helped by a wave of green subsidies in the US inflationary law and EU plans to promote cleaner energy sources.
The IPR said these initiatives provided “new impetus for climate action,” as major economies vie with China for clean energy leadership. Most policies, the IPR tracker shows, do not appear aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. .
The United Nations says a breach risks unleashing more dangerous impacts of climate change.
The 2015 Paris Agreement commits countries to limit the rise in the average global temperature this century to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and aims for 1.5°C.
Already, the world has warmed to about 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, and each of the past four decades has been hotter than any decade since 1850.
IPR Project Director Mark Fulton said, “The race to the top in clean energy triggered by the US Inflation Act and pursued by the EU Green Industrial Plan, along with other positive policy announcements since COP27, indicates an acceleration in clean energy deployment compared to recent expectations. “.
Of the 117 global policy announcements tracked in the last quarter, 89 were credible enough to be included in its tracking tool, according to IPR, with 68 supporting or confirming a forecast of a 1.8°C temperature rise, and 20 indicating Ambition increased and two to decrease.
Since policy tracking began in late 2021, the Investment Policy Review has analyzed 331 policy announcements, of which 162 support the IPR Outlook Affirmation of 1.8%.