The world cannot afford to delay drastic emissions cuts, studies show
Fiona Harvey,
The world cannot afford to wait any longer to make drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, two new studies have shown, as the United Nations climate change talks in Warsaw enter their final stage.
The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that delaying reductions in carbon dioxide output would result in faster global warming, and therefore be more difficult to counteract in future years. This contradicts the arguments that some climate sceptics have put forward that drastic cuts can be delayed until future years, because of the current "pause" in global temperature increases, and the finding by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the climate may be slightly less sensitive to the impact of rising carbon levels than the previous highest estimates.
The authors found that as carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere accumulate over time, "what happens after they peak is as relevant for long-term warming as the size and timing of the peak itself", and this would imply "sustained emissions reductions are necessary if warming is to be kept below any agreed limit".
Myles Allen, professor of geosystem science at Oxford University, lead author of one of the studies, said: "Unless we assume the long-suffering taxpayers of the 2020s somehow manage to compensate for continued procrastination now, peak carbon dioxide induced warming is increasing at the same rate as emissions themselves – at almost 2% a year – which is much faster than the observed warming."
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/21/world-delay-drastic-emissions-cuts