Climate Action Tracker update: 2° be or not 2° be
Limiting global warming below 2degC – or even to below 1.5DegC remains technically and economically feasible, but only with political ambition backed by rapid action starting now, the Climate Action Tracker said today.
In releasing their latest update at the Doha Climate talks, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), a joint project of Climate Analytics, Ecofys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said the window for reversing emissions trends is narrowing, but hasn’t closed. A 2degC pathway that is economically feasible would require 15% cuts in emissions by 2020 from present levels.
However, if nothing more is done except the current pledges, costs would be much higher to reach deeper reductions necessary later, and/or the damage from climate impacts would be far greater. Society also would lose the ability to choose whether it wants technologies like carbon capture and storage and nuclear energy, because those, along with bio-energy, would have to be deployed on a massive scale.
For more information see our briefing and the press release below.