Net-zero greenhouse gas targets: pathway and when reached equally important

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilissa Ocko ◽  
Tianyi Sun ◽  
Steven Hamburg
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Target Date ◽  
Future Warming ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Gas Targets

<p>The concept of net zero emissions is now a central element of government and business commitments to addressing climate change, with more net zero policies and pledges being rolled out on an almost daily basis. However, of major concern is the limited awareness of how critical the emissions reduction pathway is in achieving desired climate outcomes. The focus of the climate policy community remains on the target date rather than the path to get there, and net zero "by 2050" is considered by many as the required policy characteristic in achieving temperature targets. Ultimately, the rate and magnitude of future warming relies on the amount, type, and timing of greenhouse gas emissions. Based on different combinations of these factors, it is both possible to succeed or fail in achieving temperature goals even if the global community reaches net zero by 2050. For similar reasons, it is also possible to miss the net zero by 2050 target and still succeed in meeting temperature goals. Therefore, it is important to clarify the role of the decarbonization pathway taken and offer recommendations to ensure that net zero pathways succeed in achieving global climate goals. In this analysis, we show how different net zero paths can lead to a range of temperature outcomes, and how we can strengthen the probability of meeting globally agreed upon climate goals by establishing complementary near-term targets. Key components of ensuring success in achieving temperature targets include incorporating a carbon dioxide budget and acting early to reduce methane emissions. Not only do these actions make achieving our goals more likely, but they also make the path forward more affordable and less dependent on technology not yet available at scale. Overall, improved understanding of the role of the path to net zero would create greater flexibility in effectively fulfilling commitments; open opportunities for trading across groups of greenhouse gases with no loss in climate benefits; and make it easier and cheaper to accomplish corporate and government goals.</p>

scholarly journals Path to net zero is critical to climate outcome

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianyi Sun ◽  
Ilissa B. Ocko ◽  
Elizabeth Sturcken ◽  
Steven P. Hamburg
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Standard Format ◽  
Early Action ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
Gas Targets

AbstractNet zero greenhouse gas targets have become a central element for climate action. However, most company and government pledges focus on the year that net zero is reached, with limited awareness of how critical the emissions pathway is in determining the climate outcome in both the near- and long-term. Here we show that different pathways of carbon dioxide and methane—the most prominent long-lived and short-lived greenhouse gases, respectively—can lead to nearly 0.4 °C of warming difference in midcentury and potential overshoot of the 2 °C target, even if they technically reach global net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050. While all paths achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goals in the long-term, there is still a 0.2 °C difference by end-of-century. We find that early action to reduce both emissions of carbon dioxide and methane simultaneously leads to the best climate outcomes over all timescales. We therefore recommend that companies and countries supplement net zero targets with a two-basket set of interim milestones to ensure that early action is taken for both carbon dioxide and methane. A one-basket approach, such as the standard format for Nationally Determined Contributions, is not sufficient because it can lead to a delay in methane mitigation.

scholarly journals Trade–Climate Nexus: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Jeremiás Máté Balogh ◽  
Tamás Mizik
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Negotiation ◽  
Climate Agreements ◽  
Environmental Goods

In the climate–trade debate, moderate attention is dedicated to the role of trade agreements on climate. In turn, trade agreements could help countries meet climate goals by removing tariffs, harmonizing standards on environmental goods, and eliminating distorting subsidies on fossil fuels. This paper aims to provide an overview of the role of trade agreements on climate-change mitigation. This systematic literature review is based on the international economic literature published between 2010 and 2020. This literature review underlines that the effectiveness of the trade agreements and WTO negotiations on emission reduction is weak. This is due to different national interests and protectionism. The elimination of trade barriers stimulates trade, but this may also raise greenhouse gas emissions and cause other environmental problems (e.g., deforestation). Furthermore, this article points out that emission leakage is also a crucial issue hindering the success of global climate agreements on greenhouse gas reduction. The greatest beneficiaries of the trade agreements are usually the largest GHG emitters, such as China, the US, and the EU. By contrast, developing countries are in a weaker position regarding climate–trade negotiation. The literature review offers policy solutions which can contribute to emission reduction and tools for stimulating a trade-related climate-change abatement policy.

scholarly journals Global climate change and the role of anesthesiologist

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 794-799
Author(s):  
Jae Hwan Kim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Medical Waste ◽  
Anesthetic Drug ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Inhalation Anesthetics

Background: Environmental issues and health problems related to global climate change are becoming increasingly serious. An effective eco-friendly strategy is required to reduce medical waste and greenhouse gas emissions caused by anesthesia in hospitals.Current Concepts: Inhalation anesthetics are very strong greenhouse gases in the order of desflurane, isoflurane, nitrous oxide, and sevoflurane. Anesthetics with high global warming potential and long atmospheric lifetimes should be used with caution. Only the minimum required dose of an anesthetic drug with a low persistence bioaccumulation toxicity index is recommended for use. Disposable anesthesia products are known to have a low purchase price and low risk of cross-contamination; however, this may not be the case. By using eco-friendly anesthetic supplies, recycling and reuse, we can avoid wasting money and resources.Discussion and Conclusion: Greenhouse gas emissions from the use of anesthetics are excluded from United Nations regulations due to their necessity. However, while guaranteeing patient safety, anesthesiologists must fulfill their professional ethical obligations by striving to reduce medical waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

scholarly journals The role of prior assumptions in carbon budget calculations

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-577
Author(s):  
Benjamin Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Budget ◽  
System Response ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Emissions Reductions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Negative Emissions ◽  
Near Term

Abstract. Cumulative emissions budgets and net-zero emission target dates are often used to frame climate negotiations (Frame et al., 2014; Millar et al., 2016; Van Vuuren et al., 2016; Rogelj et al., 2015b; Matthews et al., 2012). However, their utility for near-term policy decisions is confounded by uncertainties in future negative emissions capacity (Fuss et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2016; Larkin et al., 2018; Anderson and Peters, 2016), in the role of non-CO2 forcers (MacDougall et al., 2015) and in the long-term Earth system response to forcing (Rugenstein et al., 2019; Knutti et al., 2017; Armour, 2017). Such uncertainties may impact the utility of an absolute carbon budget if peak temperatures occur significantly after net-zero emissions are achieved, the likelihood of which is shown here to be conditional on prior assumptions about the long-term dynamics of the Earth system. In the context of these uncertainties, we show that the necessity and scope for negative emissions deployment later in the century can be conditioned on near-term emissions, providing support for a scenario framework which focuses on emissions reductions rather than absolute budgets (Rogelj et al., 2019b).

scholarly journals Moving Beyond Global Warming Potentials to Quantify the Climatic Role of Ecosystems

Ecosystems ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1000-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott C. Neubauer ◽  
J. Patrick Megonigal
Keyword(s):  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Global Warming Potentials

Abstract For decades, ecosystem scientists have used global warming potentials (GWPs) to compare the radiative forcing of various greenhouse gases to determine if ecosystems have a net warming or cooling effect on climate. On a conceptual basis, the continued use of GWPs by the ecological community may be untenable because the use of GWPs requires the implicit assumption that greenhouse gas emissions occur as a single pulse; this assumption is rarely justified in ecosystem studies. We present two alternate metrics—the sustained-flux global warming potential (SGWP, for gas emissions) and the sustained-flux global cooling potential (SGCP, for gas uptake)—for use when gas fluxes persist over time. The SGWP is generally larger than the GWP (by up to ~40%) for both methane and nitrous oxide emissions, creating situations where the GWP and SGWP metrics could provide opposing interpretations about the climatic role of an ecosystem. Further, there is an asymmetry in methane and nitrous oxide dynamics between persistent emission and uptake situations, producing very different values for the SGWP vs. SGCP and leading to the conclusion that ecosystems that take up these gases are very effective at reducing radiative forcing. Although the new metrics are more realistic than the GWP for ecosystem fluxes, we further argue that even these metrics may be insufficient in the context of trying to understand the lifetime climatic role of an ecosystem. A dynamic modeling approach that has the flexibility to account for temporally variable rates of greenhouse gas exchange, and is not limited by a fixed time frame, may be more informative than the SGWP, SGCP, or GWP. Ultimately, we hope this article will stimulate discussion within the ecosystem science community about the most appropriate way(s) of assessing the role of ecosystems as regulators of global climate.

Russian climate aims at risk from pushback or inaction

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Floods And Droughts ◽  
Vladimir Putin

Significance They include a commitment to reach net zero by 2060, which President Vladimir Putin announced ahead of the COP26 conference, and a new government strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Impacts Russia will continue to lobby for nuclear energy to be an accepted technology within the global climate agenda. Despite the possible benefits of a warming climate, Russian farmers face immediate challenges from floods and droughts. The strategy's citation of a clean hydrogen industry demonstrates the government's ambition in this area.

The Effect of Diversity and the Mediating Role of Elaboration on Multidisciplinary Greenhouse Gas Assurance Team Effectiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erboon Ekasingh ◽  
Roger Simnett ◽  
Wendy J. Green
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Team Effectiveness ◽  
Team Member ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Team Processes ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Educational Diversity

ABSTRACT Greenhouse gas (GHG) assurance is increasingly used by companies as a means to increase stakeholder confidence in the quality of externally reported carbon emissions. The multidisciplinary nature of these engagements means that assurance is performed primarily by multidisciplinary teams. Prior research suggests the effectiveness of such teams could be affected by team composition and team processes. We employ a retrospective field study to examine the impact of educational diversity and team member elaboration on multidisciplinary GHG assurance team effectiveness. Results show that team processes such as sufficiency of elaboration on different team member perspectives significantly increases the perceived effectiveness of the teams. While educational diversity is not found to directly improve perceived team effectiveness, it is found to have a positive effect through increasing perceived sufficiency of elaboration. These findings have important implications for standard setters and audit firms undertaking GHG assurance engagements.

scholarly journals Regions of intensification of extreme snowfall under future warming

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Quante ◽  
Sven N. Willner ◽  
Robin Middelanis ◽  
Anders Levermann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Average Intensity ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Future Warming

AbstractDue to climate change the frequency and character of precipitation are changing as the hydrological cycle intensifies. With regards to snowfall, global warming has two opposing influences; increasing humidity enables intense snowfall, whereas higher temperatures decrease the likelihood of snowfall. Here we show an intensification of extreme snowfall across large areas of the Northern Hemisphere under future warming. This is robust across an ensemble of global climate models when they are bias-corrected with observational data. While mean daily snowfall decreases, both the 99th and the 99.9th percentiles of daily snowfall increase in many regions in the next decades, especially for Northern America and Asia. Additionally, the average intensity of snowfall events exceeding these percentiles as experienced historically increases in many regions. This is likely to pose a challenge to municipalities in mid to high latitudes. Overall, extreme snowfall events are likely to become an increasingly important impact of climate change in the next decades, even if they will become rarer, but not necessarily less intense, in the second half of the century.

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