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Mitigation

Plausible mitigation targets

Nature Climate Change volume 1, pages 395–396 (2011)Cite this article

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Whether the widely accepted 2 °C limit for climate change is practically achievable depends partly on climate sensitivity, but predominantly on complex socio-economic dynamics.

Climate policy negotiations are a defining forum in the global geopolitical arena, where nations trade mitigation targets in the name of protecting the planet. But how much mitigation should we actually believe is possible? Governments need to know which targets are realistically achievable, whereas businesses need to understand the corresponding, potentially radical, changes in patterns of energy and resource consumption. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Rogelj and colleagues1 use a risk-based modelling approach to explore plausible mitigation scenarios, taking into account both the processes linking greenhouse-gas emissions to climate warming, and the technical and economic aspects of reducing emissions.

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References

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  1. Neil Edwards is in Environment, Earth and Ecosystems, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK,

    Neil Edwards

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  1. Neil Edwards
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Correspondence to Neil Edwards.

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Edwards, N. Plausible mitigation targets. Nature Clim Change 1, 395–396 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1267

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