Bending the Global Temperature Rise Arc
Howard Learner, Executive Director, ELPC

The OECD’s International Energy Agency (IEA) recent report focuses on the question of what to do about climate change realities.

 IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven explains: “We recently passed a grim milestone with the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topping 400 parts per million at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. This is uncharted territory in the history of humans. While it does not represent a tipping point per se, that milestone is symbolic of our failure to respond adequately, and to fulfill our own national and international pledges to limit average global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius over the long term.”

 The science is clear that global climate change is occurring. That debate is over. How much can mitigation measures bend the arc on rising temperatures?

The IEA proposes four ways in its “4-for-2 degrees Celsius Scenario” strategy for countries to substantially reduce carbon pollution by 2020 that would make it possible in theory, at least, to eventually limit global temperature increases: