Study: Humanity Has Only Nine Years To Avoid Catastrophic Global Warming

DETROIT – The world has almost used all its remaining carbon budget. In less than a decade, it will be over — unless we do much more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by then, the world is heading causing the world to pass a critical warming threshold, a new study shows.

If this threshold is reached, it will trigger severe climate impacts around the world, from flooding and drought to hurricanes and typhoons. Can we still act in time?

When the pandemic hit, humanity recoiled and halted many of its activities as part of public health measures, which led to a decrease in our greenhouse gas emissions. As the world sought to recover after this, there were hopes that the post-pandemic reconstruction will be focused on sustainability and climate action.

But this wasn’t nearly enough

This year has been devastating. When Russia invaded Ukraine, it sent Europe (and consequently, the world) into a frenzy for new sources of gas. New gas projects were launched as a response, and these projects will consume about 10% of the remaining carbon budget, the study showed. This would make it almost impossible for the world to meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the new data shows.

The Global Carbon Budget, an annual review of how much emissions the world can afford to release to stay within its global warming targets, found that emissions will reach a record high this year, with most of it coming from fossil fuels. Emissions rose in the US and India compared to 2021, while China and the EU reported small declines.

Think of it this way: there are specific climate tipping points or thresholds; if we reach those, there will be irreversible damage and even if we reduce our emissions immediately, there’s no turning back to the way things were. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions we can emit without reaching such a point is called our “budget” — when we spend our budget, we run into debt, or in this case, a new and devastating climate state.

To read more, click on ZMEScience