Green Daily: The Making of Worst-Case Climate Scenarios
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It’s time to say goodbye to a worst-case scenario that has haunted climate research for years. Cheap renewable energy and natural gas have helped speed the worldwide shift away from coal. We’ve slowed the rate of growth in carbon-dioxide emissions. That means a nightmare scenario that assumed humanity would burn virtually all available coal—warming the planet by as much as 5° Celsius this century—can be relegated to the dustbin.
A commentary published last week in Nature by Zeke Hausfather and Glen Peters calls for accepting the good news about the improbability of a coal-forever future, known to climate wonks as RCP 8.5. Actual greenhouse-gas pollution trends are now tracking far below it.