Latest news with #1.5C
Mid East Info
24-06-2025
- Business
- Mid East Info
14th EmiratesGBC Annual Congress calls for bold collaborative approach to achieve 1.5C
Congress participants advocated actionable local initiatives and measurable outcomes to ensure concrete local impact The two-day event was held under the title 'Mission to 1.5C: Be Bold on Buildings' Bearys Global was the Platinum Sponsor and Green Way Environmental Consultants was the Gold Sponsor of the 14th EmiratesGBC Congress Dubai, UAE; June, 2025: In recognition of the urgency of the climate crisis, the Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) hosted their 14th Annual Congress recently, bringing together regulators, industry and academia to accelerate actions towards achieving the 1.5C. The Congress' agenda was formulated in line with the release of the UAE Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) and the Global Green Building Council network's call on governments to be bold on buildings at COP29. Held across two days in Dubai and Abu Dhabi under the title, 'Mission to 1.5C: Be Bold on Buildings', the EmiratesGBC Annual Congress 2025 advocated for bold policy changes as well as a market shift toward sustainability aligning with the Net Zero by 2050 roadmap. Through in-depth discussions, the Congress assessed the current state of the built environment, set short-, medium- and long-term targets, in alignment with the UAE's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) that focuses on emissions reduction, energy efficiency, renewable energy integration and climate resilience. By showcasing data-driven insights and cutting-edge innovations needed for meaningful progress, the Congress was able to demonstrate that the built environment plays a key role in achieving national climate goals and enhancing resilience to climate impacts. The event was structured around four key themes that reflect the UAE's advancing leadership in sustainable development: The UAE Commitment – Enhancing Ambitions through NDCs, Climate Finance as Enabler, Efficiency, Resilience, and Adaptation and The Building Breakthrough. Participants shared case studies, products, and processes that accelerate this transition, ensuring a practical and results-oriented approach. The Congress advocated for actionable local initiatives including piloting sustainable programs, optimizing buildings with AI, aligning finance with carbon goals and measurable outcomes such as cutting emissions by almost 80% by 2035, ensuring global ambition is met with concrete local impact. The welcome and keynote address by Khaled Bushnaq, Chairman of Emirates Green Building Council, set the tone for the event focused on advancing climate action through the built environment. Reaffirming EmiratesGBC's role as a catalyst for collaboration and a hub of excellence to drive sustainability in the UAE's built environment, he said; 'This Congress is not just another event on the calendar, it is the flagship platform where we pause, reflect, and challenge ourselves to go further. Fourteen years of convening leaders across government, business, academia, and civil society has taught us one thing: progress happens when we come together with purpose.' During the event, Mohammad Jebreel, Vice-Chair of EmiratesGBC, officially announced the release of the EmiratesGBC Market Brief 2024 offering a comprehensive snapshot of the UAE's green building landscape. Participants and speakers stressed the urgency of implementing actionable changes needed to align the local built environment with the UAE's climate commitment. The UAE's updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and upcoming reporting mandates for 2025, were highlighted to showcase how organizations can align with national net-zero targets while future-proofing their investments. The presentation on 'UAE 3D Digital Twin to Improve Livability and Sustainability in Cities' highlighted how the UAE's Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure is utilizing its advanced 3D Digital Twin Platform for sustainable urban development and improved quality of life in cities. The Dubai Land Department introduced the methodology behind the Smart Residential Rent Index and its growing alignment with sustainability considerations. Syed Mohamed Beary, Chairman, Bearys Global (Platinum Sponsor), added: 'As global awareness around sustainability grows, Bearys Global stands at the forefront merging design excellence with environmental integrity. Our participation at EGBC reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering green buildings that aren't just future ready, but future defining.' EmiratesGBC members also discussed how the Building Breakthrough initiative is driving global climate action, showcasing the pivotal role of leading industry players in accelerating sustainability efforts within the built environment. The Congress delved into the role of innovative technologies and key enablers to help new buildings achieve net zero operational emissions by 2030 and for existing buildings by 2050. With 250+ attendees and 50+ speakers, the congress addressed key issues pertaining to achieving sustainability through the built environment. Offering exhibition space for stakeholders and university students, the Congress brought together the entire ecosystem to drive actionable change. During the two-day event they also announced the opening of applications for the MENA Green Building Awards and EmiratesGBC Membership Forum, encouraging members to join for collaboration and knowledge exchange in keeping with EmiratesGBC's call for a multi-sector approach to championing green building practices. About Emirates Green Building Council: The Emirates Green Building Council EmiratesGBC was founded in June 2006, and became the 8th full member of the World Green Building Council in September 2006. EmiratesGBC promotes and educates on green issues in the built environment and is the official body for the UAE endorsed by the World Green Building Council. EmiratesGBC currently has around 170 members in the UAE which represents 1000s of individuals interested and involved in Green Building in the UAE and the region. In addition, EmiratesGBC members receive discounts on a number of programmes such as those related to conferences, seminars, training and green building events.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Only two years left of world's carbon budget to meet 1.5C target, scientists warn
The planet's remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen. Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years. The carbon budget is how much planet-heating CO2 can still be emitted by humanity while leaving a reasonable chance that the temperature target is not blown. The latest assessment by leading climate scientists found that in order to achieve a 66% chance of keeping below the 1.5C target, emissions from 2025 onwards must be limited to 80bn tonnes of CO2. That is 80% lower than it was in 2020. Emissions reached a new record high in 2024: at that rate the 80bn tonne budget would be exhausted within two years. Lags in the climate system mean the 1.5C limit, which is measured as a multi-year average, would inevitably be passed a few years later, the scientists said. Scientists have been warning for some time that breaching the 1.5C limit is increasingly unavoidable as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise. The latest analysis shows global emissions would have to plummet towards zero within just a few years to have any decent chance of keeping to the target. That appears extremely unlikely, given that emissions in 2024 rose yet again. However, the scientists emphasised every fraction of a degree of global heating increases human suffering, so efforts to cut emissions must ramp up as fast as possible. Currently, the world is on track for 2.7C of global heating, which would be a truly catastrophic rise. The analysis shows, for example, that limiting the rise to 1.7C is more achievable: the carbon budget for a 66% chance of keeping below 1.7C is 390bn tonnes, which is about nine years at the current rate of emissions. 'The remaining carbon budgets are declining rapidly and the main reason is the world's failure to curb global CO2 emissions,' said Prof Joeri Rogelj, at Imperial College London, UK. 'Under any course of action now, there is a very high chance we will reach and even exceed 1.5C and even higher levels of warming.' 'The best moment to have started serious climate action was 1992, when the UN [climate] convention was adopted,' he said. 'But now every year is the best year to start being serious about emissions reduction. That is because every fraction of warming we can avoid will result in less harm and suffering, particularly for poor and vulnerable populations, and in less challenges to living the lives we desire.' Rogelj said it was crucial that countries commit to big emissions cuts at the UN Cop30 climate summit in November. The hottest year on record was 2024, fuelled by increasing coal and gas burning, and setting an annual average of 1.5C for the first time. There is no sign yet of the transition away from fossil fuels promised by the world's nations at Cop28 in Dubai in December 2023. Related: Antarctic seal numbers falling drastically due to melting sea ice, research shows Solar and wind energy production is increasing rapidly and has precluded previous worst-case scenarios of 4-5C of global heating. But energy demand is rising even faster, leading to more fossil fuel burning and turbo-charging extreme weather disasters. The analysis, produced by an international team of 60 leading climate scientists, is an update of the critical indicators of climate change and is published in the journal Earth System Science Data. It aims to provide an authoritative assessment, based on the methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but published annually unlike the intermittent IPCC reports, the most recent of which was 2021. The study found that the Earth's energy imbalance – the excess heat trapped by the greenhouse effect – has risen by 25% when comparing the past decade with the decade before. 'That's a really large and very worrying number,' said Prof Piers Forster, at the University of Leeds, UK, and lead author of the study. 'I tend to be an optimistic person. But things are not only moving in the wrong direction, we're seeing some unprecedented changes and acceleration of the heating of the Earth and sea level rise.' Sea level rise has doubled in the past 10 years, compared with the period 1971-2018, the analysis found, rising to 4mm per year. The flooding of coasts will become unmanageable at 1.5C of global heating and lead to 'catastrophic inland migration', a study in May found. Sea level is rising because about 90% of global heating is absorbed by the oceans, making the water expand, and because the climate crisis is melting glaciers and ice caps. Dr Karina Von Schuckmann, at Mercator Ocean International, said: 'Warmer waters also lead to intensified weather extremes, and can have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. In 2024, the ocean reached record values globally.'
BBC News
19-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn
EPA The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions. That's the stark warning from more than 60 of the world's leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming. Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change. But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests - leaving that international goal in peril. Climate change has already worsened many weather extremes - such as the UK's 40C heat in July 2022 - and has rapidly raised global sea levels, threatening coastal communities. "Things are all moving in the wrong direction," said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds. "We're seeing some unprecedented changes and we're also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well." These changes "have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions", he added. At the beginning of 2020, scientists estimated that humanity could only emit 500 billion more tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the most important planet-warming gas - for a 50% chance of keeping warming to 1.5C. But by the start of 2025 this so-called "carbon budget" had shrunk to 130 billion tonnes, according to the new study. That reduction is largely due to continued record emissions of CO2 and other planet-warming greenhouse gases like methane, but also improvements in the scientific estimates. If global CO2 emissions stay at their current highs of about 40 billion tonnes a year, 130 billion tonnes gives the world roughly three years until that carbon budget is exhausted. This could commit the world to breaching the target set by the Paris agreement, the researchers say, though the planet would probably not pass 1.5C of human-caused warming until a few years later. Last year was the first on record when global average air temperatures were more than 1.5C above those of the late 1800s. A single 12-month period isn't considered a breach of the Paris agreement, however, with the record heat of 2024 given an extra boost by natural weather patterns. But human-caused warming was by far the main reason for last year's high temperatures, reaching 1.36C above pre-industrial levels, the researchers estimate. This current rate of warming is about 0.27C per decade – much faster than anything in the geological record. And if emissions stay high, the planet is on track to reach 1.5C of warming on that metric around the year 2030. After this point, long-term warming could, in theory, be brought back down by sucking large quantities of CO2 back out of the atmosphere. But the authors urge caution on relying on these ambitious technologies serving as a get-out-of-jail card. "For larger exceedance [of 1.5C], it becomes less likely that removals [of CO2] will perfectly reverse the warming caused by today's emissions," warned Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London. 'Every fraction of warming' matters The study is filled with striking statistics highlighting the magnitude of the climate change that has already happened. Perhaps the most notable is the rate at which extra heat is accumulating in the Earth's climate system, known as "Earth's energy imbalance" in scientific jargon. Over the past decade or so, this rate of heating has been more than double that of the 1970s and 1980s and an estimated 25% higher than the late 2000s and 2010s. "That's a really large number, a very worrying number" over such a short period, said Dr Matthew Palmer of the UK Met Office, and associate professor at the University of Bristol. The recent uptick is fundamentally due to greenhouse gas emissions, but a reduction in the cooling effect from small particles called aerosols has also played a role. This extra energy has to go somewhere. Some goes into warming the land, raising air temperatures, and melting the world's ice. But about 90% of the excess heat is taken up by the oceans. That not only means disruption to marine life but also higher sea levels: warmer ocean waters take up more space, in addition to the extra water that melting glaciers are adding to our seas. The rate of global sea-level rise has doubled since the 1990s, raising the risks of flooding for millions of people living in coastal areas worldwide. PA Media While this all paints a bleak picture, the authors note that the rate of emissions increases appears to be slowing as clean technologies are rolled out. They argue that "rapid and stringent" emissions cuts are more important than ever. The Paris target is based on very strong scientific evidence that the impacts of climate change would be far greater at 2C of warming than at 1.5C. That has often been oversimplified as meaning below 1.5C of warming is "safe" and above 1.5C "dangerous". In reality, every extra bit of warming increases the severity of many weather extremes, ice melt and sea-level rise. "Reductions in emissions over the next decade can critically change the rate of warming," said Prof Rogelj. "Every fraction of warming that we can avoid will result in less harm and less suffering of particularly poor and vulnerable populations and less challenges for our societies to live the lives that we desire," he added. Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Only two years left of world's carbon budget to meet 1.5C target, scientists warn
The planet's remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen. Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years. The carbon budget is how much planet-heating CO2 can still be emitted by humanity while leaving a reasonable chance that the temperature target is not blown. The latest assessment by leading climate scientists found that in order to achieve a 66% chance of keeping below the 1.5C target, emissions from 2025 onwards must be limited to 80bn tonnes of CO2. That is 80% lower than it was in 2020. Emissions reached a new record high in 2024: at that rate the 80bn tonne budget would be exhausted within two years. Lags in the climate system mean the 1.5C limit, which is measured as a multi-year average, would inevitably be passed a few years later, the scientists said. Scientists have been warning for some time that breaching the 1.5C limit is increasingly unavoidable as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise. The latest analysis shows global emissions would have to plummet towards zero within just a few years to have any decent chance of keeping to the target. That appears extremely unlikely, given that emissions in 2024 rose yet again. However, the scientists emphasised every fraction of a degree of global heating increases human suffering, so efforts to cut emissions must ramp up as fast as possible. Currently, the world is on track for 2.7C of global heating, which would be a truly catastrophic rise. The analysis shows, for example, that limiting the rise to 1.7C is more achievable: the carbon budget for a 66% chance of keeping below 1.7C is 390bn tonnes, which is about nine years at the current rate of emissions. 'The remaining carbon budgets are declining rapidly and the main reason is the world's failure to curb global CO2 emissions,' said Prof Joeri Rogelj, at Imperial College London, UK. 'Under any course of action now, there is a very high chance we will reach and even exceed 1.5C and even higher levels of warming.' 'The best moment to have started serious climate action was 1992, when the UN [climate] convention was adopted,' he said. 'But now every year is the best year to start being serious about emissions reduction. That is because every fraction of warming we can avoid will result in less harm and suffering, particularly for poor and vulnerable populations, and in less challenges to living the lives we desire.' Rogelj said it was crucial that countries commit to big emissions cuts at the UN Cop30 climate summit in November. The hottest year on record was 2024, fuelled by increasing coal and gas burning, and setting an annual average of 1.5C for the first time. There is no sign yet of the transition away from fossil fuels promised by the world's nations at Cop28 in Dubai in December 2023. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Solar and wind energy production is increasing rapidly and has precluded previous worst-case scenarios of 4-5C of global heating. But energy demand is rising even faster, leading to more fossil fuel burning and turbo-charging extreme weather disasters. The analysis, produced by an international team of 60 leading climate scientists, is an update of the critical indicators of climate change and is published in the journal Earth System Science Data. It aims to provide an authoritative assessment, based on the methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but published annually unlike the intermittent IPCC reports, the most recent of which was 2021. The study found that the Earth's energy imbalance – the excess heat trapped by the greenhouse effect – has risen by 25% when comparing the past decade with the decade before. 'That's a really large and very worrying number,' said Prof Piers Forster, at the University of Leeds, UK, and lead author of the study. 'I tend to be an optimistic person. But things are not only moving in the wrong direction, we're seeing some unprecedented changes and acceleration of the heating of the Earth and sea level rise.' Sea level rise has doubled in the past 10 years, compared with the period 1971-2018, the analysis found, rising to 4mm per year. The flooding of coasts will become unmanageable at 1.5C of global heating and lead to 'catastrophic inland migration', a study in May found. Sea level is rising because about 90% of global heating is absorbed by the oceans, making the water expand, and because the climate crisis is melting glaciers and ice caps. Dr Karina Von Schuckmann, at Mercator Ocean International, said: 'Warmer waters also lead to intensified weather extremes, and can have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. In 2024, the ocean reached record values globally.'
Canada Standard
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Canada Standard
2030 Biodiversity Target Was Always a Long Shot, UK Official Says
When negotiators in Montreal agreed in 2022 to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss by 2030, many knew the goal was ambitious, says a former United Kingdom negotiator-but the targets were about more than just hitting the numbers. In an interview with Carbon Brief, William Lockhart, who represented the UK at United Nations nature negotiations from 2021 to early 2025, expressed ambivalence about whether countries can meet the conservation targets of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), aimed at reversing biodiversity loss within five years. It remains possible with "the right interventions at exactly the right scale," he said, but countries are not on a trajectory to make it happen. But the numbers attached to the targets aren't the main point of the COP negotiations, Lockhart added. View our latest digests "The important thing is that people spent a lot of time thinking about why we were setting certain kinds of targets," he said, adding that while targets should be specific, measurable and achievable, there were open questions about what those criteria meant, and what message they were meant to send. "This is politics; this isn't necessarily science." More than half the countries that submitted plans to the UN did not commit to protecting 30% of their territories for nature-a target as important to biodiversity conservation as the 1.5C pathway is for climate action, writes Carbon Brief. "Countries have never fully met any target to help nature since the UN biodiversity convention was established in the 1990s." Lockhart questioned the role of UN summits like the COPs and whether they can be effective for global action. In one sense, he said, the world is asking too much of the COPs, "there's so much coverage and intense scrutiny." "'This person's arrived', 'this comma has moved'...There's an extraordinary media circus." But the world also asks too little of the COPs, he added, because success and failure hinges on details as small as particular words, while overall progress stalls. Lockhart said he and his colleagues worry that the COPs are being seen as ends in themselves. "We agree on stuff," he told Carbon Brief. But that stuff "doesn't get delivered, by and large," because "political factors, capability factors, jurisdictional factors, all sorts of different things" undermine implementation processes. "The problem is that by focusing on COPs as an end to themselves, we risk missing the wood for the trees." Still, Lockhart hasn't given up on the talks. "It's extremely important, in my view, that you have a space where the whole world can come together in a room and agree that it wants to do something," he said. If targets like those in the GBF aren't achievable, "then the question is: 'Why did the world agree to it?'" he asked. "And the answer to that is: 'Because it matters that we try.'" Source: The Energy Mix
