Climate change cannot be entirely avoided, but if the worst impacts of climate change are to be avoided the average global surface temperature increase must be kept as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible.
The planet has already warmed by 0.7 degrees from the pre-industrial average and even if emission were stablised at 2000 levels, the emissions already released into the atmosphere commit the planet to further warming of 0.5 to 1.2 degrees. Some regions warm faster than others and Southern Africa is already warming at roughly double the global average.Emission already released
We only have a “budget” of 1 trillion tonnes of CO2 and another 400 billion tonnes of CO2e of other gasses left to spend as a planet from 2000 to 2050.This may sound like a lot, until you realize that we’ve spent almost 60% of that budget already.
Download the WWF report, Climate Solutions 2