16 November 2016: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) issued a report titled ‘Pursuing the 1.5°C Limit Benefits & Opportunities: 2016 Low Carbon Monitor,’ which sets out to better understand the risk reduction and growth opportunities arising from a faster transition to low-carbon, sustainable development associated with limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The report identifies the implications, and possible global and regional benefits of delivering on the 1.5°C goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement on climate change, which aims to strengthen the global response to climate change, including by “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” In a number of areas, the report also explores national and local benefits and opportunities as examples of broader trends.

Among the report’s key findings is the conclusion that limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C would result in the least economic losses of all potentially achievable levels of warming and help avoid a loss of US$12 trillion, or approximately 10% of global GDP, to the global economy by 2050. The 1.5°C goal can be achieved, the report says, by reaching zero global CO2 emissions by 2050 and by ensuring, inter alia, that the share of renewables in the global energy mix is close to 100% by mid-century.

Developed together with a non-profit climate science and policy institute Climate Analytics, with technical support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the first edition of the Low Carbon Monitor was launched at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference. [Publication: Pursuing the 1.5°C Limit Benefits & Opportunities: 2016 Low Carbon Monitor] [Publication CVF Landing Page] [UNDP Press Release] [Paris Agreement on Climate Change]