TRACKING PROGRESS OF THE 2020 CLIMATE TURNING POINT

The report finds that while some progress has been made, the world is not yet on track to achieve the 2020 climate turning point. Progress is uneven across the six milestones, with most outcomes designated as having insufficient or off-track progress, though some areas like shipping and public climate finance are on track.

• Global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020 and decline dramatically thereafter to maintain the best chance of limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Progress toward the 2020 milestones is uneven; while some outcomes show acceleration, most are currently insufficient or off track.
• Renewable electricity generation reached 25 percent in 2017, making the target of 30 percent tentatively reachable if current trends accelerate.
• The transition to electric vehicles is falling short of the 15–20 percent new car sales target, with EVs accounting for only 1.4 percent of global new vehicle sales in 2017.
• Gross tree cover loss has generally increased since 2000, with 2017 seeing just under 30 million hectares of loss, indicating the world is not moving in the right direction regarding deforestation.
• Direct emissions from agriculture increased from 4.6 GtCO2e in 2000 to 5.3 GtCO2e in 2016, placing the goal to halt growth in non-CO2 emissions off track.
• Heavy industry is not on a trajectory to halve emissions by 2050, and the development of transition roadmaps by firms is currently insufficient.
• High-performance buildings, such as near-zero-energy structures, account for less than 5 percent of construction in most markets and less than 1 percent of global building stock.
• Public climate finance is on track to meet the $200 billion annual target, but data for private finance is insufficient to determine if the $800 billion target will be met.
• Fossil fuel subsidies declined from $443 billion in 2010 to $373 billion in 2015, but progress has leveled off and is not decreasing fast enough to be eliminated.
• Carbon pricing coverage has increased to 19.5 percent of global GHG emissions as of late 2018, a nearly fourfold increase from ten years prior.

APA

GE, M., LEBLING, K., LEVIN, K., & FRIEDRICH, J. (2019). TRACKING PROGRESS OF THE 2020 CLIMATE TURNING POINT. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-turning-point-progress_2.pdf

Chicago

GE, MENGPIN, KATIE LEBLING, KELLY LEVIN, and JOHANNES FRIEDRICH. TRACKING PROGRESS OF THE 2020 CLIMATE TURNING POINT. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-turning-point-progress_2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=GE |first1=MENGPIN |last2=LEBLING |first2=KATIE |last3=LEVIN |first3=KELLY |last4=FRIEDRICH |first4=JOHANNES |title=TRACKING PROGRESS OF THE 2020 CLIMATE TURNING POINT |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=February 2019 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-turning-point-progress_2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ge2019tracking, author = {GE, MENGPIN and LEBLING, KATIE and LEVIN, KELLY and FRIEDRICH, JOHANNES}, title = {{TRACKING PROGRESS OF THE 2020 CLIMATE TURNING POINT}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = feb, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-turning-point-progress_2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }