Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says open trade is crucial for decarbonisation

LATER THIS month leaders and officials from around the world will gather in Dubai for the COP28 climate-change summit. High on their agenda will be closing the gap between global climate goals and progress towards them. A recent “global stocktake” report from the UN found that global greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising, and that national pledges to cut these collectively fall far short of what is needed to keep average global temperatures within 2°C of pre-industrial levels, as set out in the 2015 Paris agreement, let alone the more ambitious 1.5°C objective.

Delivering deeper emissions cuts will be difficult, even amid record-breaking heat and various government initiatives calling for stepped-up climate action and financing. The International Energy Agency estimates the world can still get there with a massive, policy-driven increase in clean-energy capacity and energy efficiency that will cut demand for fossil fuels by 25% by 2030 and by 80% by 2050, while creating tens of millions of new jobs. This will require global clean-energy spending to rise from $1.8trn this year to $4.5trn annually (in 2022 dollars) by the early 2030s.