For three decades, the goal of international climate negotiations has been to avoid “dangerous” warming above 1.5℃. With warming to date standing at around 1.2℃, we haven’t quite reached the zone we labelled dangerous and pledged to avoid.
But the climate overshoot report identifies at least four different kinds of responses to warming above 1.5℃: But reaching net zero emissions is just the first step. The commission argues developed countries like Australia should go further and aim for net-negative emissions. As a third step, the commission agrees with scientific assessments that carbon dioxide “will need to be removed from the air on a significant scale and stored securely” if we are to avoid permanent overshoot beyond 1.5℃ warming. But how to achieve large-scale permanent, carbon removal?