It's Time to Give Up the Two Degree Target
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Forbes.com has published a op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg in which Bjorn discusses the findings from our set of reports regarding climate change.
Economist Isabel Galiana has written the main paper on climate change and comes to a conclusion which is sure to be controversial: that present policies designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases are failing and cannot be effective until better technology is available. Despite the Kyoto Protocol and many national initiatives, the fact is that emissions have increased by almost half since 1990 and will continue to increase for many decades to come.
In stark contrast, the UN and many national governments focus on committing to keep the average temperature rise below 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial times. But there is a big problem: there is no realistic chance of keeping to this limit with current trends in fossil fuel use. To do this, emissions would have to peak and then be drastically cut with some technology capturing CO₂, liquefying it and injecting it deep underground. But this technology on the vast scale needed doesn’t exist yet. Moreover, solar and wind, though very popular, will even in 2035 contribute just a tiny fraction of global energy needs.
Click here to read the entire article on Forbes.com