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CLIMATE POLICY

A risk-seeking future

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 855–856 (2018)Cite this article

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The 2014 IPCC Assessment expresses doubt that the global surface temperature increase will remain within the 2 °C target without deploying risky carbon-capturing or solar radiation-deflecting technologies. New behavioural research suggests that, if the IPCC is right, citizens and policymakers will support such risk-taking.

Discussions of climate change often revolve around how countries across the globe can manage collective risks. Risks associated with flooding, heat stress, outbreaks of infectious diseases, species extinction, coral reef collapse, sea-level rise, mass migration, food security and human conflict confront a significant portion (if not all) of humankind. The risk of ‘runaway climate change’ — surpassing a tipping point beyond which a new and potentially uninhabitable climate system becomes inevitable — constitutes the largest of them all. How we choose to communicate and tackle these risks, whether as individuals, cultures or nation-states, will fundamentally determine the future of the planet.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Greer Gosnell

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  1. Greer Gosnell
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Correspondence to Greer Gosnell.

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Gosnell, G. A risk-seeking future. Nature Clim Change 8, 855–856 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0281-z

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