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Climate impacts of poverty eradication

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 749–751 (2014)Cite this article

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Raising basic living standards and growing affluence aren't equivalent, and neither are their respective climate impacts.

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms the sobering fact that humans could cause the planet to warm by over 4 °C above pre-industrial levels. This is more than double the target of limiting warming to 2 °C set in the Cancún Agreement of 20101. Achieving this target not only requires aggressive decarbonization of industrialized societies, but also permits little room for energy growth. Whether developing countries can raise the living standards of the world's poor within these limits is a serious concern2. While much issue has been made of this 'climate–development' conflict, scientists understand surprisingly little about the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions pathways that are compatible with poverty eradication.

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Figure 1: Four-dimensional view of human development indicators against greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Narasimha D. Rao, Keywan Riahi, Arnulf Grubler are at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria,

    Narasimha D. Rao, Keywan Riahi & Arnulf Grubler

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  1. Narasimha D. Rao
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  2. Keywan Riahi
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  3. Arnulf Grubler
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Correspondence to Narasimha D. Rao.

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Rao, N., Riahi, K. & Grubler, A. Climate impacts of poverty eradication. Nature Clim Change 4, 749–751 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2340

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