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Emissions scenarios and targets aligned to meet climate goals

A mismatch in how carbon emissions are reported could endanger nations’ best efforts to meet targets for curbing climate change. A method for translating between reporting conventions offers a path forward.
  1. Chris D. Jones

    1. Chris D. Jones is at the Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK, and the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.

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  2. Alexander J. Askew

    1. Alexander J. Askew is at the Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK.

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To halt anthropogenic climate change, the world must strive for ‘net zero’ emissions. The goal of net zero sounds simple — if humans stop causing carbon dioxide emissions, the world stops getting hotter. But a subtlety in the way that anthropogenic emissions are defined has increased the risk that this goal might not be met. Writing in Nature, Gidden et al.1 suggest a way of translating between existing definitions to address the issue.

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Nature 624, 46-48 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03504-6

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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