A five-point plan equivalent to the Marshall Plan for renewable energy was unveiled by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, reiterating the need to end coal, gas and oil use.
His call coincided with the publication of a new UN study on global warming that states that four key indicators of climate change set new highs in 2021. The UN has again warned that the international energy system is leading humanity to disaster.
Greenhouse gas concentrations, rising sea levels, ocean warming and ocean acidification set new records last year, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report.
In his speech, the UN Secretary-General said that in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, humanity must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources before "burning our only home".
Solar and wind are the fastest growing clean energy technologies, but the storage of electricity from renewable sources can only be produced when the sun is shining or when there is sufficient wind.
Currently, solar and wind energy account for only 8% of world electricity production. The addition of hydroelectric and other renewable sources pushes the total up to 30 percent, with coal and gas still dominating use.
What the report records
The report confirmed that the last seven years were the hottest on record.
The successive La Nina effects at the beginning and end of 2021 had a chilling effect on global temperatures last year. However, 2021 was still one of the warmest years ever recorded, with the average global temperature in 2021 being about 1,11 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Greenhouse gas concentrations reached new global highs in 2020, when carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations reached 413,2 parts per million (ppm) worldwide, or 149 percent of the pre-industrial level.
The data show that they continued to grow in 2021 and early 2022, with the monthly CO2 average in Mona Loa, Hawaii reaching 416,45 ppm in April 2020, 419,05 ppm in April 2021 and 420,23 , 2022 ppm in April XNUMX, the report states.
The global average sea level reached a new record high in 2021, rising by an average of 4,5 millimeters per year from 2013 to 2021, the report said.
Ocean heat reached a record high last year, surpassing the 2020 price.
The oceans absorb about 23 percent of the annual CO2 emissions from human activity into the atmosphere. The report said that the Antarctic ozone hole reached an unusually deep and large area of 24,8 million square kilometers in 2021.
Source: KYPE