To achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century, global energy systems must undergo a wholesale switch to low-carbon and energy-efficient technologies.
However, many models used to chart this transition imply that there are benefits in delaying investment in these technologies, waiting instead for R&D to drive down costs over time.
Such models overlook findings from a vast literature showing that the costs of these technologies decline as a result of their use.
Our new paper in Environmental Research Letters draws on evidence from more than 200 journal articles and concludes that policies promoting such “induced innovation” have been a clear factor behind the remarkable success of low-carbon technologies.
The Stratosphere Is Shrinking And Greenhouse Gases Are To Blame
KEY POINTS
It will likely continue to shrink if greenhouse gas emission trajectories continue
A shrinking stratosphere could have possible impacts on satellites
Greenhouse gases (GHG) have long been known to be affecting the troposphere. Now an international team of researchers found that it is also causing the stratosphere to shrink.
The stratosphere in the Earth s atmosphere has shrunk and will likely continue to do so in the coming years, a team of researchers found in their
study published in Environmental Research Letters. Specifically, they found that the layer has shrunk by about 0.4 kilometers (400 meters) since the 1980s.
About 7.5 miles above our heads, the stratosphere begins.
That slice of sky where supersonic jets and weather balloons fly stretches up to 31 miles above Earth s surface. But according to new research, this layer of the atmosphere has shrunk by a quarter-mile in the last 40 years.
A study published last week in the journal Environmental Research Letters shows that humanity s greenhouse-gas emissions are behind the startling contraction.
As carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels enters the lowest level of the atmosphere known as the troposphere it traps some of the sunlight that hits Earth as that light is being reflected back into space. That s why the planet s temperature is rising. The more emissions rise, the more heat from the sun stays trapped on Earth and the less it can warm the stratosphere as it travels spaceward. So the stratosphere is cooling.
Of the over 400 climate scenarios assessed in the 1.5°C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), only around 50 scenarios avoid significantly overshooting 1.5°C. Of those only around 20 make realistic assumptions on mitigation options, for instance the rate and scale of carbon removal from the atmosphere or extent of tree planting, a new study shows. All 20 scenarios need to pull at least one mitigation lever at challenging rather than reasonable levels.