Abstract: Pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5° and 2°C generally involve netzero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy-wide near mid-century and halving emissions over the next decade. Updated pledges by countries and companies around the 2021 United Nations climate conference reflect this sense of urgency. The updated US pledge to reduce net emissions 50 to 52% by 2030 would represent a tripling of the pace of historical reductions (see materials and methods S3). We report on a six-model intercomparison of potential actions to reach the US target of at least 50% GHG reductions by 2030. This analysis helps identify which findings are more robust or uncertain given different model structures and input assumptions [see supplementary materials (SM)]. Models highlight the central roles of clean electricity and electrification, the large scale of deployment needed relative to historical levels and scenarios with only current policies, and a range of benefits from near-term action.
School Authors: Alicia Zhao, Yiyun 'Ryna' Cui
Other Authors: Lauren Harry-Villain, Yann Briand, Henri Waisman, Frederic Rudolph, Catherine Hall, Harro van Asselt, Mark Gjerek, Rico Merkert, Marcio de Almeida D'Agosto, George Vasconcelos Goes, Daniel Neves Schmitz Gonçalves, Ricardo Delgado Cadena, Maria Rosa Munoz, Dipti Gupta, Amin Hassani, Jordi Tovilla, Thalia Hernandez, Nnaemeka Vincent Emodi, Sidsel Ahlmann Jensen , Hilton Trollip