Originally shared by Charles Younger
“It’s not often you get good news on climate change. New research published yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience indicates that — contrary to previous more pessimistic projections by scientists — humanity still just about has time to limit the globe’s end-of-century temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C, the ambitious target agreed at the 2015 Paris summit.”
“…Staying within a carbon budget that — according to the models — yields a two-thirds chance of staying within 1.5C by 2100 is still incredibly difficult. The extra 20 years of emissions does not mean we can afford to spend the next two decades doing nothing. Rather, it means that we have just two more remaining decades until the entire carbon budget has been exhausted.”
Also see:
New climate change calculations could buy the Earth some time — if they’re right
“Nonetheless, even with the new revision, the latest research finds that keeping warming below 1.5 degrees C will be quite hard. ‘Even with the largest estimates of the remaining carbon budget, this path is extremely challenging, starting reductions immediately and then reducing emissions to zero over 40 years,’ Millar said at the press event.”
http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/15c-global-warming-target-still-possible-say-scientists