DRS KEVIN ANDERSON & ALICE BOWS, Tyndall Centre, UK: “radical reframing of climate change agenda”

Professor Kevin Anderson and Dr Alice Bows are climate scientists at the prestigious Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK (for details of the Tyndall Centre see: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/ ).

Professor Kevin Anderson and Dr Alice Bows of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, paper in the prestigious Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 2008: “According to the analysis conducted in this paper, stabilizing at 450 ppmv [carbon dioxide equivalent = CO₂-e, atmospheric concentration measured in parts per million by volume; roughly the present level at 390 ppm CO₂] requires, at least, global energy related emissions to peak by 2015, rapidly decline at 6-8% per year between 2020 and 2040, and for full decarbonization sometime soon after 2050 …Unless economic growth can be reconciled with unprecedented rates of decarbonization (in excess of 6% per year), it is difficult to envisage anything other than a planned economic recession being compatible with stabilization at or below 650 ppmv CO₂-e … Ultimately, the latest scientific understanding of climate change allied with current emissions trends and a commitment to “limiting average global temperature increases to below 4^oC above pre-industrial levels”, demands a radical reframing of both the climate change agenda, and the economic characterization of contemporary society.” [1].

[1]. Professor Kevin Anderson and Dr Alice Bows, Proc. Trans. Roy. Soc, A, 2008: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/journal_papers/fulltext.pdf .