This report summary was written by the EU Horizon 2020 CONSTRAIN project.
**Report name **
Who wrote this report?
The EU Horizon 2020 CONSTRAIN project is a consortium of 14 European partners who are improving our understanding of the climate system and feeding this information into climate models to create improved climate projections for the next 20-50 years.
This fourth ‘ZERO IN’ report by the CONSTRAIN project looks at how cutting emissions in this critical decade for climate can limit temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, and also reduce other climate impacts in the near-term. Specifically it provides supporting information on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, especially the Working Group III report on the mitigation of climate change, unpacking the type and level of action we need across the world to slow down and even stop global warming in the coming decades. It also shows how increased ambition and action can limit the worst climate impacts, from floods and cyclones to heatwaves, across the world.
Best quote
Limiting warming to 1.5°C is still technically feasible–albeit increasingly difficult, with deep, rapid and immediate emissions reductions needed across all sectors. Achieving this is a matter of political will, and the choices made between now and 2030 will be critical.
**Key takeaways: **
- The latest climate science shows that we can still achieve the Paris Agreement goals, in terms of both limiting global warming and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
- Immediate and rapid energy system transformations and emissions cuts would slow down the rate of global warming between now and 2050, potentially halving it over the next twenty years. They could even halt warming by 2050.
- How much warming we experience by 2050 also has significant implications for climate impacts, which will intensify with every increment of temperature rise: every fraction of a degree matters.
What’s in this report?
This fourth and final 'ZERO IN' report by the CONSTRAIN project looks at how cutting emissions this decade can limit temperature rise and other climate impacts in the near-term.
It examines which kind of pathways will help get the world on track to meet the Paris Agreement, highlighting how our ability to keep temperature rise to below 1.5°C is largely dependent on governments' collective action and decisions made now and in the very near future.
It also demonstrates how reducing emissions now can slow down warming in the near future, and how such strong emissions cuts will reduce future climate impacts across the world, and therefore the scale of action needed to cope with them.
Why should you read this report?
By 2023 we will be well into “the critical decade for climate”. This report explains why this is the critical decade, unpicking some of the key messages coming out of the latest climate science: we need to target larger emissions cuts, and achieve them by 2030, then reach net zero emissions by mid-century, to avoid the most dangerous climate change. It also shows how delaying action any further will not only increase the scale and immediacy of the challenge, but also the severity of the impacts we experience.
Who is this report for?
This report is aimed at policy- and decision-makers working in the climate sphere who want to understand what the science set out in IPCC reports means for this and the coming decades. It also aims to support public servants, NGOs and other change agents across civil society who want to develop evidence-based policy and plans relating to climate change and climate action.
🔗 Read the full report here. 🔗
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