#Environment #Weather #Climate #Survey

Climate scientists express their views on possible future climate scenarios in a new study 🤔

A new survey of climate experts reveals that a majority believes the Earth to be headed for a rise in global temperatures far higher than the 2015 Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 to well-below 2°C.

The study was published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment. It also shows that two-thirds of respondents all of them authors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believe we may succeed in achieving net zero CO2 emissions during the second half of this century. This indicates some optimism that mitigation efforts may be starting to bend the emissions curve toward what would be needed to achieve the Paris temperature goal.

A majority also acknowledged the potential for atmospheric CO2 removal, with a median response indicating a belief that the technology could remove up to five gigatons of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) a year by 2050. That is at the lower end of the range believed to be necessary to meet the Paris targets.

The 211 respondents to the survey were generally pessimistic about reaching the Paris targets given current policies, with 86 per cent estimating warming above 2˚C by 2100. The median estimate was 2.7˚C, which is expected to have catastrophic consequences for the planet.
#Environment #Weather #Climate #Survey