What is it about?

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing humanity. This review paper takes a holistic and quantitative look at where we currently stand in terms of GHG emissions and current global warming, what is projected in a business as usual case and what it will take to at least minimize the potentially catastrophic impacts that future generations will have to deal with.

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Why is it important?

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the global climate mitigation challenge and documents that: -Global warming has accelerated in recent years; approaching 1.5 C warming from the pre-industrial era -Greenhouse Gas emissions are the primary driver for the observed warming -Climate Impacts are here and now; much more to come -Humanity’s growing population and increasing demand for resource intensive goods and services have driven the dramatic emission growth over the Last 50 years -The potential mitigation impact of the recent Paris Accord is modest but an important first step -It appears unlikely we will be able to limit warming to 2 degree C or less -Near term,aggressive action is needed to minimize the warming and associated potentially disastrous impact; key components of such action are discussed

Perspectives

I have had the opportunity, over a 40 year period, of managing research programs for the USEPA with the aim of identifying/developing solutions for key environmental problems. These problems included: emissions of SOx, NOx and particulates, stratospheric ozone layer depletion, emissions of air toxics including Mercury and in recent years, Global Climate Change. Without doubt the most challenging and potentially disastrous of these is climate change. We have dug ourselves a very deep hole and we barely started the process of digging ourselves out. This paper attempts to define the problem and actions necessary to minimize the potentially disastrous impacts that will be imposed on humanity, especially future generations.

Frank Princiotta

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This page is a summary of: We are losing the climate change mitigation challenge; Is it too late to recover?, MRS Energy & Sustainability, January 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1557/mre.2017.5.
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