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Carbon budget

Estimating vanishing allowable emissions for 1.5 °C

The remaining carbon budget for 1.5 °C has been a highly discussed tool to communicate the urgency of efforts needed to meet the Paris Agreement. Now, research reassesses IPCC estimates, suggesting that ongoing near-flat emissions and methodological choices can make big relative differences to the tiny remaining 1.5 °C budget.

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Fig. 1: An illustration of the RCBs detailed in the IPCC AR6 WGI assessment and by Lamboll and colleagues.

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Correspondence to Benjamin M. Sanderson.

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Sanderson, B.M. Estimating vanishing allowable emissions for 1.5 °C. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 1284–1285 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01846-7

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