At COP24, Vision for 2-Degree Limit Remains Achievable

In the United States, climate change is already estimated to cost the U.S. economy $500 billion per year by the end the century.

And with the globe on track to well exceed the Paris Agreement-recommended 2 degrees Celsius limit, a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on the Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) gap gives hope at a critical time.

Debuted during a panel at the United Nations climate change conference (COP24) this past December in Poland, NRDC’s report finds that achieving the 2 degrees limit remains achievable if all “doable” and “scale-up” categorized actions in the report are fully implemented. These solutions include near-term solutions such as China’s 2025 projected coal-consumption cap and deploying low-carbon energy options in India as well as in-progress efforts including cutting carbon in the global apparel industry, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, countries meeting conditional climate targets, and enhancing international aviation efficiency.

This is encouraging news at time of increasing concern over the world’s hopes to mitigate climate change’s impact on lives and economy with last November’s 4th National Climate Assessment following October’s even bleaker UN IPCC report that sees the potential economic damages in the tens of trillions of dollars.

The report also provides a “need focus” category for policy action. Though the category includes pilot initiatives that do not have support or finance for global implementation, if all were implemented (such as such as shifting to a less meat-intensive diet), the report estimates global temperature rise would be limited to between 1.6 and 1.8 degrees Celsius — potentially saving the world trillions of dollars from avoidance of climate change disasters.

The report can be accessed here.

States Lead U.S. Role at COP24

With the Trump administration continuing to take us backward on climate issues, U.S. leadership on the global state is increasingly being left to states and others.

Instead of an official U.S. pavilion at the United Nations’ COP24 in Poland, the coalition campaigns We Are Still In and America’s Pledge took centerstage to discuss how cities, states, businesses, and non-profits are working to uphold America’s part of the Paris Climate Agreement.

One particularly salient event, the role of Midterm Elections in Advancing the U.S. Climate Agenda, featured a panel entirely from the public sector.

While all panelists on the stage agreed that the midterm election was a boon for the U.S. climate agenda, it’s clear there’s still much work to be done.

Lily Weissgold is an E2 Emerging Leader and student at Colorado College.

Courtney Shephard is a Colorado-based attorney in the Natural Resources Department of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP where she focuses on public lands, energy