The U.S. is on track to miss its 2025 emissions reduction pledge agreed to in the Paris climate accord last year—because it doesn’t have the proper policies in place to meet the target, according to new research.
In fact, the country is so far behind in emissions slashing that even if it implemented a slew of new clean energy programs now, it could still miss its 2025 target by nearly 1 billion tons, the study published in the journal Nature has found. In the Paris accord, the U.S. pledged to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels.
According to authors Jeffery Greenblatt and Max Wei of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the evidence shows it is necessary for the U.S. to make “fundamental changes” to its energy and economic sectors.
“If the policies were locked today, there would be a low likelihood of meeting the target,” Greenblatt told the Guardian. “I wouldn’t disparage the U.S.’s efforts so far, but we need to do more as a nation and globally to reduce emissions. However we splice it, that’s hard to do. We can’t make small alterations to our economy—we need fundamental changes in how we get and use energy.”