Global pollution level not to decline before 2040: report

CAIRO - 13 November 2019: Global pollution caused by carbon emissions has risen for the second time, putting the world on a more dangerous path until 2040 unless governments take drastic steps, according to a report issued by Bloomberg USA on Wednesday.

The findings in the International Energy Agency's annual report on energy paint a bleak picture of expectations for trying to curb climate change, a setback for the pro-environment movement, the agency said.

The report said emissions levels would have begun to fall back to bring the world in line with the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement to curb temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, but the IAEA's most likely scenario suggests emissions will not reach zero before 2040, 20 years after the deadline proposed by climate scientists.

Strong economic growth, rising demand for electricity and slowing efficiency gains all contributed to a 1.9 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) report released on Wednesday.

Bloomberg said the findings appeared to be another sign that efforts to keep the world away from the most polluting fuels were moving so slowly that they did not significantly affect environmental conservation.

As the sun and wind-based industries are booming, the developing world's energy thirst also raises coal and fuel consumption, increasing air pollution levels.

The report puts an end to the idea that pollution could have been reversed, although carbon emissions fell between 2014 and 2016 but escalated again in 2017 and 2018.

In September 2019, Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said that
Youth should be given the opportunity to provide innovative solutions and emerging projects to reduce the impacts of climate change. This came in Fouad's speech at the official celebration of the World Day of Climate Resilience held on the guidelines of the 74th Session of the UNGA meetings at New York University Center.

"The launching point to resisting climate change impacts is the youth themselves as they should learn how to build a future capable of resisting climate change, preserving biodiversity and reducing desertification,"Fouad said, addressing more than 400 young men and women.

Fouad called on the international community to face climate change impacts, stressing that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change, as Africa witnessed around 1,000 natural disasters that affected the lives of 200 million people and killed 400,000 others.

“Egypt is working on intensifying international cooperation to accelerate the enhancement of resilience to stand defiant against climate change’s ongoing impacts,” Fouad stressed.