Urgent actions required

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("IPCC") was clear in its report that global warming is caused by human activity and the burning of fossil fuels. We need to act now to slow the rate of emissions this decade if we do not want global warming to reach the critical 2°C increase. Each of the world’s top emitters - China, the United States, and the European Union — have goals to slow the rate of emissions of CO2 this decade.

CO2 emissions come from burning oil, gas, and coal; these fossil fuels drive heating, electricity, agriculture, land use, industry, and transport. Global warming is overwhelmingly controlled by the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. There is a nearly linear relationship between cumulative CO2 increasing and global surface temperatures rising. Negative emissions of CO2 are a requirement for any long-term climate solution.

Fig. 3: Global carbon-dioxide emissions