Global emissions should drop by 40 to 70 percent between 2010 and 2050, and hit zero by 2100 to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s synthesis report released in Copenhagen yesterday.
This would require reducing fossil fuels in energy use to 20 percent by 2050 and completely phasing them out by the end of this century to avoid “severe, widespread and irreversible impacts.”
“We have the means to limit climate change,” said R. K. Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC. “The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change.”
The latest report sums up the three IPCC reports published over the past year and is intended to serve as a guide for the Paris climate talks in 2015, at which about 200 governments are slated to reach a deal to combat climate change.