Inger Andersen – COP26 and the Emissions Gap

In the 3rd episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Inger Andersen, the Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Director of UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme).

UNEP recently published this year’s “Emissions Gap Report: The Heat Is On”. The Gap Report is a science-based assessment of the gap between countries’ climate pledges and the reductions required to deliver a global temperature increase of below 2°C by the end of this century.

UNEP also publishes two related reports that are discussed in this episode. Firstly, the “Production Gap Report” that tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goals. Secondly, the “Adaptation Gap Report” that looks at progress in planning for, financing and implementing adaptation

In this episode, Andersen focuses on the “Emission Gap Report” and its conclusion that the new national climate pledges combined with other mitigation measures put the world on track for a global temperature rise of 2.7°C by the end of the century.

Andersen also explains how the annual reports are prepared and why it is pivotal to have a scientific, factual and apolitical assessment of the gap between pledged and required reductions.  

She underlines that it is well above the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and would lead to catastrophic changes in the Earth’s climate. To keep global warming below 1.5°C this century, the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement, the world needs to halve annual greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years.

Furthermore, Jørgensen and Andersen discuss what role the report will play at COP26 and how net-zero targets can play in bridging the emissions gap.