Climate change: how is my country doing on tackling it?

illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on BBC or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: COP28 in Dubai resurfaces the debate on responsibility for the climate crisis and the capacity to tackle it
• Wealthy nations have greater responsibility due to their historical contributions to global emissions and a greater capacity to afford emissions-reducing actions
• Thus, it is widely believed that these countries should be doing more to reduce their emissions

🔭 The context: In lieu of this, the Climate Action Tracker has devised a method to calculate what they call the "fair share" targets, which consider a country's historical contributions to total global emissions as well as their current levels
• These targets predict by how much each country needs to reduce its emissions in order for the world to reach the 1.5°C threshold

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Achieving these ambitious targets is vital for mitigating climate change impacts
• Key developments at COP28, include an agreement on a "loss and damage fund" for developing countries and pledges to triple renewable energy use by the end of the decade, can be instrumental in this

⏭️ What's next: Monitoring individual countries' progress towards their commitments and the impact of global initiatives is crucial for ensuring meaningful climate action

💬 One quote: "The world is looking to you to come up with a treaty to address this challenge that has been with us for some time now." (Kwame Asamoa Mensa-Yawson, Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership)

📈 One stat: Despite increasing clean energy uptake, fossil fuel use hasn't seen a corresponding decrease, with some regions even expanding their fossil fuel consumption

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