Beer on the Beach. Jake Bradley jakebradley, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrate: Global Warming to “commit” to 1.5C by 2025 (Maybe)

Essay by Eric Worrall

According to a new paper, we have a 50% chance of “committing” to 1.5C global warming by 2025, rising to 66% by 2029. But the authors have left a nice big escape hatch, perhaps in case that pesky pause lengthens.

“Limited time:” World will lock in 1.5°C warming by 2025 without big emissions cuts

Michael Mazengarb 7 June 2022

The world faces a greater than 50 per cent chance of locking in global warming of more than 1.5°C  unless greenhouse gas emissions can be dramatically reduced before 2025, new research suggests.

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, warn that the world needs an ‘abrupt cessation’ of greenhouse gas emissions to prevent locking in global warming above safe levels.

The research also confirm that net zero targets by 2050 are insufficient to cap average global warming  below 2°C, and that does not include like feedback loops that will accelerate temperature rises.

…

“Assuming a medium-emissions trajectory, we find that we are already committed to peak warming greater than 1.5°C with 42 per cent probability, increasing to 66 per cent by 2029. Probability of peak warming greater than 2.0°C is currently 2 per cent, increasing to 66 per cent by 2057,” the paper says.

…

Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/without-big-emissions-cuts-warming-of-1-5-degrees-to-be-locked-in-before-2024/

The abstract of the paper;

Published: 

Estimating the timing of geophysical commitment to 1.5 and 2.0 °C of global warming

M. T. Dvorak, K. C. Armour, D. M. W. Frierson, C. Proistosescu, M. B. Baker & C. J. Smith 

Following abrupt cessation of anthropogenic emissions, decreases in short-lived aerosols would lead to a warming peak within a decade, followed by slow cooling as GHG concentrations decline. This implies a geophysical commitment to temporarily crossing warming levels before reaching them. Here we use an emissions-based climate model (FaIR) to estimate temperature change following cessation of emissions in 2021 and in every year thereafter until 2080 following eight Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Assuming a medium-emissions trajectory (SSP2–4.5), we find that we are already committed to peak warming greater than 1.5 °C with 42% probability, increasing to 66% by 2029 (340 GtCO2relative to 2021). Probability of peak warming greater than 2.0 °C is currently 2%, increasing to 66% by 2057 (1,550 GtCO2 relative to 2021). Because climate will cool from peak warming as GHG concentrations decline, committed warming of 1.5 °C in 2100 will not occur with at least 66% probability until 2055.

Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01372-y

The paper is paywalled, which I find a little hilarious – charging for information about the imminent end of the world.

What I find most intriguing though is the vagueness of the prediction. We’re “committed” to 1.5C, but when we will actually experience this warming seems really vague – maybe by 2055, but we might have to wait until 2100.

Don’t forget folks, the science is “settled”.

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71 Comments
IanE
June 7, 2022 7:50 am

Well, whatever the truth of any of this (I know, I know, but I’m a generous soul), the one thing we know for 100% copper-bottomed certain is that there will be no emission cuts by 2025, 2029, ….. At least on a global scale!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  IanE
June 8, 2022 5:30 am

Absolutely correct. CO2 levels will continue to increase while the alarmists continue to tell us we need to cut back. The alarmists are talking and nobody that counts is listening.

CO2 levels *will* increase in the future. The question is: Will temperatures follow?

At the present time, CO2 levels are increasing, but the temperatures are not increasing.

Time will tell. Time is the only thing that will settle this argument. The vested interests are too strong, otherwise.

MarkW
June 7, 2022 7:57 am

They have yet to demonstrate that 1.5C would be problem.
They also have yet to demonstrate that CO2 is responsible for any of the warming since 1850 or so.

Olen
June 7, 2022 7:58 am

What if it doesn’t happen, what then?

Bruce Cobb
June 7, 2022 8:27 am

Let us not be hasty and commit to 1.5C right off. Perhaps move in together for a while, and see how it goes.

June 7, 2022 9:27 am

Models.
Meh…

June 7, 2022 3:45 pm

How do you commit to something that you have almost no control over?

June 7, 2022 5:34 pm

I think we can all agree that the authors of this gormless, trite piece of garbage, ought to be committed !

Julien
June 7, 2022 10:21 pm

So we’re committed to 1.5C of warming likely before the end of the decade? Lol
Question is how much of those 1.5C of warming are the result of adjustments…
Did anyone quantify this already?
That would be interesting.
I really suspect the earth isn’t warming that much since the pre-industrial times.
All the land temperature records are based on GHCNm as far as I know so it should be a good starting point for analysis.

Bob
June 10, 2022 9:38 pm

1.5C? 2.0C? It is all nonsense, we don’t know what the average global temperature was in the 1700’s and 1800’s. We don’t know what the average global temperature is today. The average global temperature is a meaningless standard.

Ed Norman
June 11, 2022 12:04 pm

Two questions to ask alarmists:

  1. when has the climate NOT been changing?
  2. when was the climate “ideal” and how do you know?

If they cannot answer these in a meaningful way, their alarmism is all bluster.

Given that previous warm spells (Roman and Medieval) were referred to as “optimum”, and that the Little Ice Age is considered sub-optimal by most people, why do the alarmists use 1850 to 1900 (end of the LIA) as their baseline, rather than, say the Medieval Warm Period?
The current ~1C global temperature “rise”, if real, could just be a return to the MWP optimum.