In real terms, that means we will release the equivalent of around 47 billion tons of carbon, instead of 51 billion. Although these projections are certainly true, their importance for the fight against climate change has been overstated.Īnalysts disagree about how much emissions will go down this year, but the International Energy Agency puts the reduction around 8 percent. You may have seen projections that, because economic activity has slowed down so much, the world will emit fewer greenhouse gases this year than last year. Even as the world works to stop the novel coronavirus and begin recovering from it, we also need to act now to avoid a climate disaster by building and deploying innovations that will let us eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions.
But the fact that dramatically higher temperatures seem far off in the future does not make them any less of a problem-and the only way to avoid the worst possible climate outcomes is to accelerate our efforts now. When disaster strikes, it is human nature to worry only about meeting our most immediate needs, especially when the disaster is as bad as COVID-19.
I realize that it’s hard to think about a problem like climate change right now. As awful as this pandemic is, climate change could be worse. But in just a few decades, the same description will fit another global crisis: climate change. Its effects are rippling across the world. It is causing a tragic number of deaths, making people afraid to leave home, and leading to economic hardship not seen in many generations.