Comment on IPCC 1.5 ºC global warming report

Net Zero“This is probably the most important report that the IPCC has ever produced. At the Paris summit, governments decided that preventing dangerous climate change means holding global warming to 1.5ºC, and this report tells them what they need to do in order to deliver that. And preventing dangerous climate change has been the goal ever since governments began taking the issue seriously thirty years ago.

“The report shows that although 1.5ºC of warming will have serious consequences, the world will be a lot better off there than at higher levels of warming, with far less damage to nature and a lower risk of passing thresholds for irreversible impacts.

“Most importantly, it shows that the challenge of constraining climate change, of reaching net zero carbon emissions by mid-century, can be met. The challenge is formidable – but there plenty of evidence that shows it can done, and plenty that says it’s worthwhile.”

For details of how emissions can be brought to or close to zero in sectors such as energy, industry and transport, on the realities of ‘negative emissions’ and the rationale for the 1.5ºC target, new ECIU Briefings are available here.