How Does the World Get to Net-Zero Before 2050?
Five Roadmaps for Getting There
With the world’s countries coming together this fall at the UN Climate Summit (COP26) to revisit and amp up their commitments to solving the climate crisis, the question on my mind is “What’s it really going to take to get to net-zero before 2050?” (In a previous post, Making Sense of the World’s Climate Targets I discuss what net-zero means).
While no one knows for certain yet, one thing is for sure; we are in a race against time and need to ramp up our climate actions significantly if we are going to cut global GHG emissions in half by 2030 and get to net-zero emissions by 2050. We need to get on the road now.
As Jonathon Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, wrote in a recent article, “What’s the best time to get started? Answer: 30 years ago. Question: What’s the second-best time to get started? Answer: Today.”
Luckily, some experts have created different roadmaps with varying degrees of detail to help guide the world in taking exponential action. I summarize five of them here.