It will take a huge effort to limit global warming to 1.5 C. We have already achieved the scale of emissions reductions by accident.
A new study shows that global carbon dioxide emissions fell in 2020.
That reduction is the largest absolute annual decline in emissions, larger than the emissions decrease of the 2009 financial crisis and even larger than the decrease reconstructed at the end of World War II.
We don't want to repeat that because of the massive disruption to our economies and way of life caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
It is possible to achieve these emissions reductions if we make similar changes in a targeted and controlled way.
The researchers found that the biggest factor in reducing emissions was the huge decrease in ground transport. If we switched to powered it with renewable energy, we could save a lot of money.
The Australian National University climate scientist, who was not involved in the study, said it was a great demonstration that it was possible to reduce emissions.
Individuals doing their part to reduce how much they travel isn't the solution. There needs to be a planned transition to implement the changes that are needed.
The benefits would be huge.
The study found that limiting warming to 1.5 C would reduce risks to humans by 40 percent compared to a 2 C scenario and up to 85 percent compared to a 3.66 C scenario. Water scarcity, heat stress, diseases, flooding, and economic impacts were considered by Rachel Warren and colleagues.
Hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to severe dry spells with each level of warming. If we stuck to 1.5 C, we could reduce global economic impacts by 20 percent and reduce the number of people exposed to diseases like Malaria and Dengue by 10 percent.
The CO 2 emissions have returned to their previous levels. The finances for such supports are still dominated by fossil fuel investments.
These are the kinds of problems that need to be changed to get lasting results.
Overshooting 2 C would cause waves of extinctions and long-term damage to tens of thousands of species. They are trying to understand how much damage this would cause.
The effort to stop temperatures rising isn't an abstract attempt at bending curves on a graph.
The 1.5 C target is still important even if it slips away. The 1.5 C goal was never meant to be a magic number.
Researchers agree that we still have a chance at limiting our warming to below 2 C, even though we have already avoided some of the worst scenarios.
If we end up at 1.7 C, that's better than 1.7 C, and if we end up at 2 C, that's better than 2 C.
Warming matters every time. Every action matters.
The new studies were published in a number of journals.
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