IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v529y2016i7587d10.1038_nature16542.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets

Author

Listed:
  • Sonia I. Seneviratne

    (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science)

  • Markus G. Donat

    (ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate System Science, University of New South Wales
    Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales)

  • Andy J. Pitman

    (ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate System Science, University of New South Wales
    Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales)

  • Reto Knutti

    (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science)

  • Robert L. Wilby

    (Loughborough University)

Abstract

Global temperature targets, such as the widely accepted limit of an increase above pre-industrial temperatures of two degrees Celsius, may fail to communicate the urgency of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The translation of CO2 emissions into regional- and impact-related climate targets could be more powerful because such targets are more directly aligned with individual national interests. We illustrate this approach using regional changes in extreme temperatures and precipitation. These scale robustly with global temperature across scenarios, and thus with cumulative CO2 emissions. This is particularly relevant for changes in regional extreme temperatures on land, which are much greater than changes in the associated global mean.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonia I. Seneviratne & Markus G. Donat & Andy J. Pitman & Reto Knutti & Robert L. Wilby, 2016. "Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets," Nature, Nature, vol. 529(7587), pages 477-483, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:529:y:2016:i:7587:d:10.1038_nature16542
    DOI: 10.1038/nature16542
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16542
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature16542?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:529:y:2016:i:7587:d:10.1038_nature16542. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.