Global warming could stabilise if we reach zero emissions

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, explained that this means ‘our actions have a direct and immediate impact on surface warming’. We’ve now more of a chance to slow down the rates in which Earth heats within a single generation – if we cut back on emissions.

Over 100 countries have promised to reach net zero by 2050. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be cutting all emissions entirely, but rather balance them with the amount of carbon being removed by forests and natural resources so that the total gross emissions are zero. The US is set to join the pledge once Joe Biden’s presidency begins.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate expert at the Breakthrough Institute, was also eager to stress that this is ‘good news’. He said that the ‘main takeaway is that how much warming happens this century and beyond is up to us’.

A climate lecturer at Imperial College London said he was ‘confident’ that a net zero Earth would make it possible to push down rising temperatures. He added that getting to that target was the ‘foremost task we have to tackle with great urgency’.

The bottom line is simple. We have to get our emissions down as soon as possible, as it’ll likely have a far more immediate and significant impact than we had previously assumed. In an avalanche of anxiety-inducing information and news surrounding climate change, it’s nice to receive something refreshingly hopeful.

Let’s continue to push our governments and co-operations to change their production and manufacturing processes and keep to the 2050 target. It’ll be hard work, but it seems clearer than ever that it’s one of the key ways we’ll have any hope at controlling global warming.