As I interact with people who are not immersed in the climate discourse, it is surprising that they believe that there is ‘too’ much focus on climate action. They believe that with this kind of ‘intense focus’ on climate action, we are already doing a lot and will be able to manage this.
Unfortunately, we are nowhere on the path to achieve our climate goals. The emissions increased post the dip in the pandemic years. We were at 57.4 GtCO2e in 2022. (See the graph below from UNEP Emission Gap Report 2023).
And even if we meet all our existing climate goals (Nationally Determined Contributions — NDCs set up countries) we will fall short of the 2030 target by 11 GtCO2e (if we want to keep the global warming below 2 degree).
Many of us are familiar with the data, but there is a limited understanding of climate change and climate action among the general public. Mainstream climate discourse is urgently needed.
