IPCC report: UK calls for all countries to produce tougher climate plans to keep 1.5C goal in reach

All countries must produce tougher climate plans to keep the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within reach, UK minister Alok Sharma has said.

Mr Sharma is president-designate of Cop26, a major global climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November.

His call comes in the wake of a landmark climate report released on Monday, which said “it is more likely than not” that the world will hit 1.5C of above pre-industrial levels sometime over the next 20 years.

The most comprehensive assessment yet from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that urgent and immediate action is needed to keep the aspirational temperature target within grasp.

Mr Sharma described the report’s findings as a “wake-up call” and urged all countries to commit to more stringent plans to slash emissions in the coming decades.

“This report shows that 1.5C is still achievable but it’s retreating fast,” he told a press briefing held after the report’s release on Monday morning.

“We need far more in terms of action – and action that follows the facts. We need all countries to commit to net zero and to commit short-term emission reduction targets to take them there.”

Global average temperatures currently stand at around 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.

And analysis by the research group Climate Action Tracker shows that current pledges and targets put forward by countries would cause around 2.4C of global heating by 2100.

Almost all countries agreed to keep global temperatures below 2C by 2100, with an aspiration of limiting warming to 1.5C, under the historic Paris Agreement in 2015. An interim IPCC report in 2018 found that the additional half a degree of heating would spell disaster for low-lying island nations, tropical coral reefs and glaciers.

“We need to take action this year and make sure that, at Cop26, we are able to credibly say that we have kept 1.5C alive,” said Mr Sharma.

His words came as the government announced a boost to the UK’s offshore wind industry. More than 1,300 jobs will be “created and protected” in the Humber region under the new plans, according to the government.

But the UK itself has come under intense pressure over its actions to tackle the climate crisis.

A report from the government’s own advisers released in June said the government’s plans to both tackle greenhouse gas emissions and cope with worsening climate impacts amounted to talk over action.

The government has also repeatedly come under fire for refusing to rule out the possibility of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

This is despite the fact that a landmark report from the International Energy Agency released in May found that there is no room for new fossil fuel development beyond 2021 if the world is to meet its climate goals.

Defending the UK’s position on oil and gas on Monday, Mr Sharma said: “We have been very clear that any future licences that are approved from a UK perspective are going to be subject to net zero by 2050.”

Academics and campaigners have previously challenged the idea that any new licences could be in line with the country’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions.

The Independent’s Stop Fuelling the Climate Crisis campaign is shining a light on fossil fuel production in the North Sea in the months leading up to Cop26.