The new report, published on April 4, revealed that without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as agreed by almost all countries in the Paris accords, is beyond reach.
To keep the 1.5°C objective alive, worldwide emissions must peak by 2025 and then reduce 43% by 2030.
The research also points out that there is increasing evidence of climate action efficiency and that solar and wind energy have the potential to deliver over one-third of this emissions reduction target.
"We are on a fast track to climate disaster," said UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres during the presentation of the report.
“This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double 1.5 degrees,” he added.
Options in all sectors to halve emissions by 2030
The ITUC said in a press release that the world needs “a plan to convert jobs in fossil fuels to jobs in clean energy” and that “every country, every industry, every company, and every investor must have a plan developed, in partnership with working people and their communities, and must implement it rapidly”.
The report explains that all sectors can contribute to reach the emissions reduction target, including the media sector.
The IFJ has already implemented internal measures to reduce its ecological footprint while it is taking action to improve the media coverage and union responses to the climate crisis.
The IFJ also encourages all its members and media to put global warming on top of their agenda and invest in in-depth reporting on the issue.
IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger said: “Climate change is the most pressing problem of our time. The new IPCC shows that green transition policies are working and that we need to speed up in a transition to a greener economy. As trade unionists, we demand a just transition for all workers affected by the shift to a zero-carbon economy”