{"id":2768,"date":"2012-11-23T10:12:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T10:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2012-11-23T10:12:31","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T10:12:31","slug":"too-late-for-two-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2012\/11\/23\/too-late-for-two-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Too late for two degrees?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Absolutely, says PricewaterhouseCoopers [pcw<\/strong><\/em>]\u00a0in their latest Low Carbon Index<\/a> Report. \u00a0This is the Report's Foreword by Leo Johnson, pcw<\/em><\/strong> Partner for sustainability and climate change:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to plan for a warmer world.<\/p>\n

The annual Low Carbon Economy Index centres on one core statistic: the rate of change of global carbon intensity.
\nThis year we estimated that the required improvement in global carbon intensity to meet a 2\u00b0C warming target has risen to 5.1% a year, from now to 2050. We have passed a critical threshold \u2013 not once since World War 2 has the world achieved that rate of decarbonisation, but the task now confronting us is to achieve it for 39 consecutive years.<\/p>\n

The 2011 rate of improvement in carbon intensity was 0.7%, giving an average rate of decarbonisation of 0.8% a year since 2000. If the world continues to decarbonise at the rate since the turn of the millenium, there will be an emissions gap of approximately 12 GtCO2 by 2020, 30GtCO2 by 2030 and nearly 70GtCO2\u00a0by 2050, as compared to our 2-degree scenario.<\/p>\n

Even doubling our current rate of decarbonisation, would still lead to emissions consistent with 6 degrees of warming by the end of the century. \u00a0To give ourselves a more than 50% chance of avoiding 2 degrees will require a six-fold improvement in our rate of decarbonisation.<\/p>\n

In the emerging markets, where the E7 are now emitting more than the G7, improvements in carbon intensity have largely stalled, with strong GDP growth closely coupled with rapid emissions growth. Meanwhile the policy context for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear, critical technologies for low carbon energy generation, remains uncertain. Government support for renewable energy technologies is also being scaled back. As negotiators convene every year to attempt to agree a global deal, carbon emissions continue to rise in most parts of the world.<\/p>\n

Business leaders have been asking for clarity in political ambition on climate change. Now one thing is clear: businesses, governments and communities across the world need\u00a0to plan for a warming world \u2013 not just 2\u00b0C, but 4\u00b0C, or even 6\u00b0C.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just to be clear, this is not some wacky bunch of scaremongers; it's PricewaterhouseCoopers.<\/p>\n

I wonder if education ministries will start to plan for a warmer world? \u00a0Well, maybe. \u00a0Whatever that turns out to be, I wonder how it will relate to what UNESCO now calls ESD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absolutely, says PricewaterhouseCoopers [pcw]\u00a0in their latest Low Carbon Index Report. \u00a0This is the Report's Foreword by Leo Johnson, pcw Partner for sustainability and climate change: It\u2019s time to plan for a warmer world. The annual Low Carbon Economy Index centres...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}