New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows that current carbon removal plans will not be enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5C. . The scientists came to this conclusion by measuring the “emissions gap” between various national climate protection plans and what is actually needed to achieve this goal.
This first-of-its-kind study found up to 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between current global plans to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and what is needed by 2050. avoid the worst effects of global warming. These effects include heat waves, floods, droughts, melting ice and rising sea levels.
Since 2010, the United Nations environment agency UNEP has conducted similar measurements of this emissions gap. Focusing primarily on CO2 removal, UEA research shows that climate policy requires a more ambitious scope if we are to survive as a species.
This means a leaner and more robust approach that still maintains current carbon sequestration practices, but with a renewed focus on reducing emissions, renewable energy and minimizing deforestation. There are also new decarbonization options that many nations have been slow to discuss, or even fail to implement.
These include advanced air filter systems and . The latter is a technique in which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored in rocks. These techniques remove only 0.002 billion tons of C02 per year versus 3 billion tons with conventional options. The study suggests that these new options will need to become more widespread in the coming years to help meet the 1.5C limit.
Lead author of the study, Dr. from the MCC Applied Sustainability Science working group. “The calculation must be refined,” said William Lamb. “This much is clear: without rapid reductions to zero emissions in all sectors, the 1.5C limit will not be met under any circumstances.”
Co-author Dr. from UEA’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research. Naomi Vaughan added that “countries need greater awareness, ambition and action to achieve deep emissions reductions while scaling up carbon removal methods to achieve the aspirations of the Paris Agreement. .”
To that end, even if every country sticks to its carbon emission targets, the amount of carbon emitted is likely to increase by a maximum of 0.5 billion tons by 2030 and 1.9 billion tons by 2050. It said an increase of 5.1 billion tonnes is needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. So, yes, there is 3.2 billion tons of space.
At least we’re not doomed yet. The IPCC proposes an alternative scenario in which the world’s governments work together to reduce global energy demand, accelerated by “politically motivated behaviour”. In this scenario, carbon emissions would increase by 2.5 billion tons by 2050, and alternative methods would help close the emissions gap by just 400 million tons. So we basically have to change our whole society one of his personal interests to one of global cooperation. It never hurts to dream, and hey, maybe artificial intelligence will come in and save us.
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