Cautious Optimism and Incremental Goals Toward Stabilizing Atmospheric CO2

A. P. Ballantyne; P. Ciais; J. B. Miller

doi:10.1029/2018EF001012

Cautious Optimism and Incremental Goals Toward Stabilizing Atmospheric CO₂

A. P. Ballantyne
, P. Ciais
, J. B. Miller

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fossil fuel emissions of CO₂ to the atmosphere appear to have leveled off in recent years; however, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations continue to rise. Our simple analysis shows that peaks in the growth rates of human population and fossil fuel emissions have been observed, but the growth rate of atmospheric CO₂ has reached record levels and shows no indication of peaking. Before atmospheric CO₂ concentrations can be stabilized at safe levels, a peak in the CO₂ growth rate must be achieved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1632-1637
Number of pages	6
Journal	Earth's Future
Volume	6
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF001012
State	Published - Dec 2018

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant 1633831, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), as well as a Macron MOPGA fellowship to A. P. Ballantyne. All atmospheric CO2 data are available from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html). All fossil fuel emission data are available from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html). All human population data are from the United Nations Population database (https://population.un.org/wpp/). This work was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant 1633831, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), as well as a Macron MOPGA fellowship to A. P. Ballantyne. All atmospheric CO2data are available from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (https:// www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ global.html). All fossil fuel emission data are available from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (http:// cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/emis/ meth_reg.html). All human population data are from the United Nations Population database (https:// population.un.org/wpp/).

Funders	Funder number
1633831
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Keywords

global C cycle
human population

Access to Document

10.1029/2018EF001012

Cite this

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abstract = "Fossil fuel emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere appear to have leveled off in recent years; however, atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to rise. Our simple analysis shows that peaks in the growth rates of human population and fossil fuel emissions have been observed, but the growth rate of atmospheric CO2 has reached record levels and shows no indication of peaking. Before atmospheric CO2 concentrations can be stabilized at safe levels, a peak in the CO2 growth rate must be achieved.",

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