+1,5 °C: How much greenhouse gas can we still emit? Background paper on global and national greenhouse gas budgets
The total amount of GHG emissions still being released into the atmosphere is relevant for compliance with a certain maximum global warming, as provided for in the Paris Climate Agreement. As part of the Paris Agreement, Austria has committed to doing its part to limit the increase in the global average temperature to +1.5 °C. If we want to remain true to this scientifically well-founded goal, global and national GHG emissions must be reduced rapidly, otherwise we are currently heading for global warming of +2.8 °C, which would result in significantly greater damage and losses.
In the CCCA background paper "+1.5 °C: How many more greenhouse gases can we emit?" sets out, based on existing scientific literature, how to scale up from global GHG and CO2 budgets to budgets for Austria and the specific figures that result for Austria. This paper was developed in a broad commenting process by the Austrian climate and transformation science community. (Status November 2022)
The entire background paper is available for download below.