For example, let’s think about what it means to replace a coal power plant with a cleaner form of energy like wind or solar. It will make our lives better and safer for sure. Will taking action make our lives better or safer, or will it only make a difference to future generations?.Anything beyond that would be much, much worse. It’s a level of warming where we can manage the risks and the consequences. I think that’s really the message of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports-that’s why the 2˚ limit was chosen, in a sense. But if we can contain global warming within those 2˚, we can manage those effects. And even 2˚ is a significant amount of warming for the planet, and will have consequences in terms of sea level rise, ecosystem changes, possible extinctions of species, displacements of people, diseases, agriculture productivity changes, health related effects and more. Two degrees might still be doable, but it requires significant political will and fast action. With the cumulative amount of emissions that we are going to emit into the atmosphere over the next years, we will easily reach 1.5˚ without even trying to change that trajectory.Īssateague Island National Seashore, where the potential for storm surges and flooding is higher due to sea level rise. Today we are already experiencing an average change in global temperature of. The temperature change has a direct relationship with the cumulative amount of emissions that are in the atmosphere, so the more we keep emitting at the pace that we are emitting today, the more steeply we will have to go on a downward trajectory and the more expensive it will be. I think that the most important message is that we need to start really, really soon, putting the world on a trajectory of stabilizing and reducing emissions. But clearly the window is closing quickly. ![]() ![]() There is still time and room for limiting climate change within the 2˚C limit that scientists consider relatively safe, and that countries endorsed in Copenhagen and Cancun. Will the actions we take today be enough to forestall the direct impacts of climate change? Or is it too little too late?.The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project is an initiative of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. ![]() The decarbonization project comprises energy research teams from 16 of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries that are developing concrete strategies to reduce emissions in their countries. We posed these questions to Laura Segafredo, manager for the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project. Whenever the focus is on climate change, as it is right now at the Paris climate conference, tough questions are asked concerning the costs of cutting carbon emissions, the feasibility of transitioning to renewable energy, and whether it’s already too late to do anything about climate change. NASA’s supercomputer model created this simulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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