World’s ‘carbon budget’ for key climate goal was halved in just three years
The world has eliminated half of its remaining carbon budget to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels in just the last three years, scientists said Thursday. In early 2020, scientists at the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that the world could burn only 500 billion more tons of carbon dioxide and still have a decent chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a threshold aimed at averting disastrous warming. This is known as the carbon budget. (For reference, the world is predicted to burn about 40 billion tons of CO2 this year.) But now, researchers estimate, in a new paper published Thursday, that the number has been cut in half thanks to three years of high emissions and new scientific understanding of how particles of air pollution, known as aerosols, affect the climate. This is unprecedented, Piers Forster, one of the authors of the paper and a climate scientist at the University of Leeds, said at a news conference in Bonn, Germany. The shift is due in part to the fact that, despite the brief dip in emissions during the coronavirus pandemic, carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are still sky-high and even increased slightly last year. At the same time, researchers have also updated their climate models to account for new scientific findings. As the world phases out fossil fuels, pollution from aerosols has already begun to decline. Thats good for air quality and human health but aerosols also cool the planet slightly by reflecting sunlight. Scientists updating climate models to account for this fact have realized that the planet may have a much smaller carbon budget than originally hoped. We have a quite significant update of the remaining budget for 1.5 degrees, Joeri Rogelj, one of the authors of the paper, said at the news conference. Only 250 gigatons of CO2 left. Other experts say its very possible that the remaining carbon budget has been winnowed down to almost nothing. Its possible perhaps likely that weve already exhausted much of the remaining 1.5C carbon budget, Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University who was not involved in the study, said in an email. The Earth is warmer today than it was five years ago, and were speeding toward 1.5C with no hint of a decline in greenhouse gas emissions. Its important to note that 1.5 degrees Celsius was always a highly ambitious climate goal early on, some scientists questioned whether it was even possible to phase out fossil fuels fast enough to reach it. But in the past five years it has become a key focus of climate activism, even as some experts have warned that it is now essentially out of reach . Scientists now estimate that the world is likely to pass that temperature mark sometime in the next 10 years. Researchers dont think that catastrophic tipping points will trigger exactly at 1.5 degrees Celsius, but they do know that every tenth of a degree makes warming and the damage it causes worse. The new paper shows that progress toward the 2 degree Celsius goal has also taken a hit. In the past three years, the researchers estimated, the carbon budget for 2C has narrowed by about 15 percent. And temperatures are already over 1 degree Celsius higher than in preindustrial times. Understanding our climate: Global warming is a real phenomenon , and weather disasters are undeniably linked to it . As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe and parts of the world are becoming too hot to survive . What can be done? The Post is tracking a variety of climate solutions , as well as the Biden administrations actions on environmental issues . It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are ways to cope with climate anxiety . Inventive solutions: Some people have built off-the-grid homes from trash to stand up to a changing climate. As seas rise, others are exploring how to harness marine energy . What about your role in climate change? Our climate coach Michael J. Coren is answering questions about environmental choices in our everyday lives. Submit yours here. You can also sign up for our Climate Coach newsletter .