Carbon emissions & global warming

Warning of "hellish" 3 deg. global warming

November 2023

The Guardian  20 November  Damian Carrington   Environment editor

The world is on track for a “hellish” 3C of global heating, the UN has warned before the crucial COP28 climate summit that begins next week in the United Arab Emirates.

The report found that today’s carbon-cutting policies are so inadequate that 3 degrees C of heating would be reached this century.

Temperature records have already been obliterated in 2023 and intensifying heatwaves, floods and droughts have taken lives and hit livelihoods across the globe, in response to a temperature rise of 1.4C to date. Scientists say far worse is to come if temperatures continue to rise. The secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, has said repeatedly the world is heading for a “hellish” future.

Read the Guardian article

The UN report referred to is the UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report 2023

Since 2010, it has provided an annual science-based assessment of the gap between estimated future global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if countries implement their climate mitigation pledges, and where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Summary    (15 pqge PDF - detailed enough for most people)

Full report   (108 page PDF)

Antonio Guterres  UN Secretary General
“Present trends are racing our planet down a dead-end 3C temperature rise. This is a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the vulnerable, and a massive missed opportunity. Renewables have never been cheaper or more accessible. We know it is still possible to make the 1.5 degree limit a reality. It requires tearing out the poisoned root of the climate crisis: fossil fuels.

“Leaders must drastically up their game, now, with record ambition, record action, and record emissions reductions. No more greenwashing. No more foot-dragging.”

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February 2023

Reducing emissions from steel making

A recent article in The Economist describes an ingenious idea for modifying the steel making process proposed by two scientists at the University of Birmingham, which appears to have the potential to reduce its emissions by over 90%.