Reaching "Net Zero Carbon" by 2050....Is it possible??

By Sourav Kumar Nagal, a student at Amity University Rajasthan 

The planet’s atmosphere is heating up and our oceans are acidifying at alarming rates because we burn too much fossil fuel. To put it simply, if we want to solve climate change we must go “net zero” – virtually eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.

The terms “climate change” and “global warming” have become buzzwords in national politics, the media, and even everyday conversation. It’s such a big topic that it’s sometimes overwhelming to talk about. Some people call human-caused climate change the world’s greatest problem. Others deny its existence. Why is that? I examine different perspectives on human caused climate change to help answer this question. Ultimately, I aim to ask and answer a different, more important question: “What am I to do?”

           -  Andrew Eliot Binder

Climate change isn’t just a problem for the future generations. It is destroying habitats and people right now. The evidence is everywhere - record-breaking heat waves in India and Pakistan that killed 1000 people this summer, brush fires that destroyed neighborhoods in California, water rationing in Puerto Rico due to lack of rain and more intense storms battering small islands in the Pacific like the Marshall Islands. Poor countries with little coping capacity are bearing the brunt of the severest impacts - even though they have done little to cause climate change.

Sadly, climate change is irreversible and we can no longer avoid all impacts. But we still have time to reduce climate change risks very significantly and to protect the most vulnerable. Governments and businesses have a moral and legal responsibility to take decisive action.

The good news is that there are myriad solutions and innovations to help us tackle climate change. Energy efficiency, smart urban design and 100% clean technologies, like solar, geothermal, tidal and wind, are rapidly displacing fossil fuels. More and more cities are deploying these existing innovations and technologies at scale demonstrating we can power modern societies, reduce our energy bills and generate high quality jobs and health benefits such as clean air.

The Paris Agreement

Buoyed by these developments, the world’s leaders adopted a long term goal of phasing out global greenhouse gas emissions to zero. This goal is set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement adopted by over 197 countries in December 2015. Paris also requires richer countries to provide financial support to help the world’s vulnerable countries adapt to climate change and leapfrog to clean technologies.

The Paris Agreement is a game-changer because it is the first legally binding agreement mandating governments keep global average temperature “well below 2o C” and “pursue efforts to keep below 1.5oC”. The Paris Agreement explicitly ties these temperature limits to the phase out greenhouse gas emissions within the last half of this century”. Scientific assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change and also the UN Environment Program provide clarity on what “in the second half of the century” mean. The precise timeframe depends on how much risk one runs of missing the 2oC and 1.50C limits.

Global emissions of CO2 must reach zero by around 2050 (range 2045-2050). Global emissions of all greenhouse gases must reach zero by 2060-2080. The shorter time frame for CO2 emissions is to ensure a full phase of energy-related fossil fuel emissions. The phase out for gases such as methane and agricultural related CO2 emissions may take longer. To have a one-in-three (33%) chance of returning warming to below 1.5° C by 2100 and a two-in-three (66%) chance of keeping warming below 2° C during this century.

Forests - Lungs of Earth

But there's another hope, as a variety of the strongest tools we've to combat global climate change already exist in nature.

Forests, which cover one-third of Earth’s surface, are the second largest carbon sinks (behind oceans). Their trees are the foremost effective technology we've for pulling dangerous carbon emissions out of the air. And, south of the equator, tropical forests breathe life into our world, producing quite 40 percent of the oxygen we need to survive.

That’s why forest conservation is becoming a crucial component of plans to combat global warming and build a more sustainable future. Conservation also means less deforestation and forest degradation, which create more emissions than all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships within the planet. Forest conservation, therefore, can be a two-pronged approach to one problem: stop the emissions caused by forest loss and sustainably manage forests to trap the carbon within the ground.

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation’s partnership on the “30 Hills” project on the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be a great example of how forest conservation can benefit local communities, commodity producers and wildlife, while keeping intact large stores of forest carbon. Projects like this are being duplicated and brought to scale worldwide through a global effort called REDD+, that connects tropical countries to financial incentives to cope with the drivers of forest loss and degradation, while still developing in a very sustainable way. But more governments and also the private sector should join this effort to make it successful.

"We are the FIRST generation to feel the effects of climate change and the LAST generation who can do something about it."

- President Obama