Future CO2 Emissions and Climate Change from Existing Energy Infrastructure

✍ Scribed by Davis, S. J.; Caldeira, K.; Matthews, H. D.

• Book ID: 115485081
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 862 KB
• Volume: 329
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1188566

✦ Synopsis

What We're In For

What would our climate future look like if we stopped building any new infrastructure that used fossil fuels?
Davis
et al.
(p.
1330
; see the Perspective by
Hoffert
) made the assumption that all existing infrastructure will be used until the end of its lifetime, after which it will be replaced by infrastructure that does not produce CO
~2~
. They then calculated the amount of additional CO
~2~
that will be added to the atmosphere. The outcome is that the concentration of atmospheric CO
~2~
would remain below 430 parts per million (ppm) (present levels are 390 ppm) and global mean temperatures would increase to 1.3°C above preindustrial values (about 0.5°C above present), well below current targets of 450 ppm and 2°C, respectively.