Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Integrated assessment

Strong climate action is worth it

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 419–420 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

An immediate and rapid reduction in global emissions is required for many reasons. Integrated research supports the economic case for strong near-term climate action, even before accounting for expected negative impacts on biodiversity, health and tipping points.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Economically optimal warming estimates lag behind global climate targets.

References

  1. Armstrong McKay, D. I. et al. Science 377, eabn7950 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hoegh-Guldberg, O. et al. Science 365, eaaw6974 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. van der Wijst, K.-I. et al. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01636-1 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Rising, J. et al. Nature 610, 643–651 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Carleton, T. et al. Quart. J. Econ. 137, 2037–2105 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Burke, M., Hsiang, S. M. & Miguel, E. Nature 527, 235–239 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Byers, E. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 055012 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Pachauri, S. et al. Science 378, 1057–1059 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pauw, W. P. et al. Clim. Policy 22, 1241–1251 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Kikstra, J. S. & Waidelich, P. Replication code for “Strong climate action is worth it”. GitHub https://github.com/jkikstra/strong-climate-action-is-worth-it (2023).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E. Byers and J. Rogelj for valuable discussions on earlier versions of this text. This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council under grant agreement no. NE/S007415/1 (J.S.K.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

    Jarmo S. Kikstra

  2. Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Jarmo S. Kikstra

  3. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Jarmo S. Kikstra

  4. Climate Finance and Policy Group, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Paul Waidelich

Authors
  1. Jarmo S. Kikstra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul Waidelich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jarmo S. Kikstra.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kikstra, J.S., Waidelich, P. Strong climate action is worth it. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 419–420 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01635-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01635-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing