The certification of the 2023 public accounts (Part II)

The signatories to the 2016 Paris Accord on climate change agreed to limit ‘the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels’ and to pursue ‘efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels’. However, these targets are set to be overrun unless there is global mobilization on an unprecedented scale. This is according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has warned that the world is currently on track for temperature rises which could peak to a “catastrophic” 3.1°C by the end of this century.  Reacting to UNEP report, the UN Secretary-General asserted that the world is ‘teetering on a planetary tightrope. Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster – with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most’.