The burden to improve the environment will fall in part on business, which must continue to invest ever more in bettering its operations. That’s because developing nations will be demanding more, populations will be growing and emission rates will be rising. The result?
There’s just a 5% chance of reaching the goals set by the Paris agreement, or keeping temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees Celsius by mid century. That’s according to a research effort published in Nature Climate Change.
“We’re closer to the margin than we think,” said Adrian Raftery, a University of Washington academic who led the research, as referenced in the Guardian. “If we want to avoid 2C, we have very little time left. The public should be very concerned.”
The university adds that the odds are 90% such temperature increases will be between 2 degrees Celsius and 4.9 degrees Celsius by 2100. The Guardian notes that technological advances will curtail carbon intensity by 90%. But that won’t be enough to stay within the dimensions of the Paris accord. While China and India will make significant improvements, much of the forthcoming impact will occur in sub-Saharan African, the story says.
“Even if the 2C target isn’t met, action is very important,” said Raftery in the Guardian piece. “The more the temperature increases, the worse the impacts will be. We would warn against any tendency to use our results to say that we won’t avoid 2C, and so it’s too late to do anything. On the contrary, avoiding the higher temperature increases that our model envisages is even more important, and also requires urgent action.”
Where does business fit in?