Negotiations heading towards high warming, high cost pathway

Date Published 2011, December 06

Authors Niklas Höhne, Bill Hare, Michiel Schaeffer, Claudine Chen, Marcia Rocha, Marion Vieweg-Mersmann, Hanna Fekete, Joeri Rogelj, Kirsten Macey, and Felix Fallasch

Institution Climate Analytics, Ecofys, PIK

Delaying any decisions on future climate action until 2015 or 2020 will bring a rapidly increasing risk in costs and threatens the likelihood of the world being able to keep global warming to below 2 degrees C, the Climate Action Tracker warned today in its Durban update.

We are heading toward a global emissions pathway that will take warming to 3.5degC, and far from a cost-optimal pathway to keep warming below 2degC, according to the latest analysis from the Climate Action Tracker, a joint project of Climate Analytics, Ecofys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.