Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts
Abstract Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are causing climate change, and impacts of climate change are already affecting every region on Earth. The purpose of this review is to investigate climate impacts that can be linked quantitatively to cumulative CO 2 emissions (CE), with a focus on impacts scali...
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crioppubl:10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda 2024-06-02T08:02:32+00:00 Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel Matthews, H Damon Horizon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Concordia University National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda/pdf unknown IOP Publishing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining Environmental Research: Climate ISSN 2752-5295 journal-article 2024 crioppubl https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda 2024-05-07T13:57:36Z Abstract Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are causing climate change, and impacts of climate change are already affecting every region on Earth. The purpose of this review is to investigate climate impacts that can be linked quantitatively to cumulative CO 2 emissions (CE), with a focus on impacts scaling linearly with CE. The reviewed studies indicate a proportionality between CE and various observable climate impacts such as regional warming, extreme daily temperatures, heavy precipitation events, seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, global mean precipitation increase over ocean, sea ice decline in September across the Arctic Ocean, surface ocean acidification, global mean sea level rise, different marine heatwave characteristics, changes in habitat viability for non-human primates, as well as labour productivity loss due to extreme heat exposure. From the reviewed literature, we report estimates of these climate impacts resulting from one trillion tonne of CE (1 Tt C). These estimates are highly relevant for climate policy as they provide a way for assessing climate impacts associated with every amount of CO 2 emitted by human activities. With the goal of expanding the number of climate impacts that could be linked quantitatively to CE, we propose a framework for estimating additional climate impacts resulting from CE. This framework builds on the transient climate response to cumulative emissions (TCRE), and it is applicable to climate impacts that scale linearly with global warming. We illustrate how the framework can be applied to quantify physical, biological, and societal climate impacts resulting from CE. With this review, we highlight that each tonne of CO 2 emissions matters in terms of resulting impacts on natural and human systems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Global warming Ocean acidification Sea ice IOP Publishing Arctic Arctic Ocean Environmental Research: Climate |
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Abstract Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are causing climate change, and impacts of climate change are already affecting every region on Earth. The purpose of this review is to investigate climate impacts that can be linked quantitatively to cumulative CO 2 emissions (CE), with a focus on impacts scaling linearly with CE. The reviewed studies indicate a proportionality between CE and various observable climate impacts such as regional warming, extreme daily temperatures, heavy precipitation events, seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, global mean precipitation increase over ocean, sea ice decline in September across the Arctic Ocean, surface ocean acidification, global mean sea level rise, different marine heatwave characteristics, changes in habitat viability for non-human primates, as well as labour productivity loss due to extreme heat exposure. From the reviewed literature, we report estimates of these climate impacts resulting from one trillion tonne of CE (1 Tt C). These estimates are highly relevant for climate policy as they provide a way for assessing climate impacts associated with every amount of CO 2 emitted by human activities. With the goal of expanding the number of climate impacts that could be linked quantitatively to CE, we propose a framework for estimating additional climate impacts resulting from CE. This framework builds on the transient climate response to cumulative emissions (TCRE), and it is applicable to climate impacts that scale linearly with global warming. We illustrate how the framework can be applied to quantify physical, biological, and societal climate impacts resulting from CE. With this review, we highlight that each tonne of CO 2 emissions matters in terms of resulting impacts on natural and human systems. |
author2 |
Horizon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Concordia University National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel Matthews, H Damon |
spellingShingle |
Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel Matthews, H Damon Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
author_facet |
Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel Matthews, H Damon |
author_sort |
Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel |
title |
Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
title_short |
Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
title_full |
Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
title_fullStr |
Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
title_full_unstemmed |
Linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
title_sort |
linking cumulative carbon emissions to observable climate impacts |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda/pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Global warming Ocean acidification Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Global warming Ocean acidification Sea ice |
op_source |
Environmental Research: Climate ISSN 2752-5295 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fda |
container_title |
Environmental Research: Climate |
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1800747023375269888 |