Emma Foehringer Merchant reported in 2018 on the attitudes of that day by accusing the United Nations of confronting a future with “the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage.” Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require extreme changes, including markedly increasing the percentage of electricity from renewables by mid-century, according to a Sunday report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report, commissioned as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, presents a stark portrait of the future unless the world undertakes “rapid, fair-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” in the next decade or so — changes that thus far have been difficult for decision-makers to agree on. “The report shows that we only have the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that supports life as we know it,” said Amjad Abdulla, an IPCC board member and chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States.
Citing over 6,000 scientific reports and using contributions of 91 authors, the report’s pathways to limit warming vary. But all include increased levels of clean energy. Most show drastic reductions in coal and oil. That report included a wide array of possible scenarios that would draw down emissions and keep warming below 1.5°C, including bumping the share of renewables in electricity to 97 percent in the most aggressive forecast. In a sampling of three scenarios the IPCC selected to show a wide range of possible climate mitigation approaches, renewables range from a 63 to 77 percent share of electricity by mid-century. The IPCC also included one scenario that would overshoot the 1.5°C target.
The middle range of the IPCC’s scenarios, where there is little to no overshoot, require that renewables make up 70 to 85 percent of electricity by 2050.
[Notice that nuclear power was discussed in terms of the role nuclear power might play in the future].
Read on for the goals wind and solar must reach to minimize climate change ..... compare with our thinking of 2021. Also review the extensive comments below the article.
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