Solutions for 1.5 Degrees

To halt global warming, global carbon dioxide emissions have to be reduced to net zero. This, however, is no easy task. Many of our daily activities currently produce greenhouse gas emissions that are then released into the atmosphere, and changes in one area can affect emissions elsewhere. To capture these complex interactions and understand how these greenhouse gas emissions can be avoided, researchers use integrated models that describe our global economy, how we produce energy and the ways in which we use our land for food. The options and choices available to society to transform towards a more sustainable future are then explored through scenarios – “what-if” stories that project how the future could look like under a given set of assumptions. In this talk, we will explore together how the limited amount of carbon dioxide that we can still emit while limiting global warming to safe levels can be translated into emissions pathways that inform the climate change debate and climate policy about choices that are made today.

Presenter: Joeri Rogelj, Lecturer, Grantham Institute at Imperial College London