Cutting Carbon Emissions Alone No Longer Enough to Meet Climate Change Targets, New Study Warns

But if we simultaneously also reduce emissions of methane and other often overlooked climate pollutants, we could cut the rate of global warming by half by 2050 and give the world a fighting chance, also revealed the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It's possible that reducing carbon emissions alone won't be enough to keep temperatures from climbing by 2°C. Short-lived climate pollutants must be decreased to slow down warming in the near future and lessen suffering from ever-increasing heatwaves, droughts, superstorms, and fires.

"Decarbonisation is crucial to meeting our long-term climate goals, but it's not enough," said Drew Shindell, Professor of Earth Science at Duke University. "Our analysis shows that climate pollutants such as methane, nitrous oxide, black carbon soot, low-level ozone and hydrofluorocarbons contribute almost as much to global warming as longer-lived CO2.

"Since most of them last only a short time in the atmosphere, cutting them will slow warming faster than any other mitigation strategy," Shindell added.

The new study accounts for this effect and concludes that focusing exclusively on reducing fossil fuel emissions could result in "weak, near-term warming", which could potentially cause temperatures to exceed the 1.5°C level by 2035, and the 2°C threshold by 2050.

In contrast, reducing both CO2 and other climate pollutants simultaneously would significantly improve our chance of remaining below the 1.5°C mark, the researchers said.

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