The world’s biggest gamble

Johan Rockström; Hans Joachim Schellnhuber; Brian Hoskins; Veerabhadran Ramanathan; Peter Schlosser; Guy Pierre Brasseur; Owen Gaffney; Carlos Nobre; Malte Meinshausen; Joeri Rogelj; Wolfgang Lucht

doi:10.1002/2016EF000392

The world’s biggest gamble

Johan Rockström, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Brian Hoskins, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Peter Schlosser, Guy Pierre Brasseur, Owen Gaffney, Carlos Nobre, Malte Meinshausen, Joeri Rogelj, Wolfgang Lucht

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

The scale of the decarbonisation challenge to meet the Paris Agreement is underplayed in the public arena. It will require precipitous emissions reductions within 40 years and a new carbon sink on the scale of the ocean sink. Even then, the world is extremely likely to overshoot. A catastrophic failure of policy, for example, waiting another decade for transformative policy and full commitments to fossil-free economies, will have irreversible and deleterious repercussions for humanity’s remaining time on Earth. Only a global zero carbon roadmap will put the world on a course to phase-out greenhouse gas emissions and create the essential carbon sinks for Earth-system stability, without which, world prosperity is not possible.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	465-470
Number of pages	6
Journal	Earth's Future
Volume	4
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000392
State	Published - Oct 1 2016
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Earth system
Paris Agreement
carbon budget
carbon roadmap
climate change
decarbonisation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Science(all)
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

Access to Document

10.1002/2016EF000392

Cite this

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AU - Schlosser, Peter

AU - Brasseur, Guy Pierre

AU - Gaffney, Owen

AU - Nobre, Carlos

AU - Meinshausen, Malte

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The world’s biggest gamble

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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