2020 Atmosphere Paris Agreement 
Union of Concerned Scientists
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
The pledge is a voluntary agreement to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030; however, methane levels keep going up and we are woefully off track for meeting this goal. Compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), methane doesn’t linger for long in the atmosphere after being emitted.
Union of Concerned Scientists
NOVEMBER 15, 2022
The pledge is a voluntary agreement to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. Although methane doesn’t linger very long in the atmosphere, increasing methane levels are particularly bad news because it packs a big punch. But its short lifetime in the atmosphere is also a reason for hope.
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Union of Concerned Scientists
NOVEMBER 16, 2022
Updated analysis from 2020 shows that emissions traced to the 88 largest carbon producers contributed approximately 60 percent?of of the observed rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and 52 percent of the rise in global average temperatures between 1880 and 2015. The transition to 100-percent renewables is possible.
Circle of Blue
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
” A growing body of scientific research shows that even if society were to halt emissions overnight, a certain amount of atmospheric warming—and accompanying environmental risks— would still occur. That is more ambitious than earlier pledges, but it still exceeds the Paris agreement goal of 1.5 And we need it now.”
Union of Concerned Scientists
OCTOBER 26, 2022
My research evolved over time, but initially focused on trying to understand how ice sheet collapse—specifically Antarctic ice sheet collapse—could impact climate change around the world through changes in the oceans, sea ice and atmosphere. How did we end up with global average temperature as a metric in the Paris agreement?
Union of Concerned Scientists
OCTOBER 27, 2022
The 2022 UN NDC Synthesis report assesses the collective impact of emissions reduction pledges, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), that countries have submitted under the Paris Agreement. Methane emissions showed their biggest annual increase in 2020 and again in 2021.
A Greener Life
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
The UN body the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) explained that the economic downturn brought on by nationwide lockdowns only caused a temporary downturn in emissions and was not enough to reverse the rising levels of greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere. Not going in the right direction. It now looks like a distant pipedream.
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