pan-EU level, countries are strongly engaged with the adoption of several different
policies to reach the second. As mentioned above, the reduction of the emission is
finalized to stabilize the atmospheric CO 2 level. The CO 2 emission global budget
for limiting global warming to 2 °C was calculated in 2013 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): to reach the target it would be necessary
to stabilize the CO 2 atmospheric level at 450 ppm with a 50% likelihood of success
[2b]. During 2019 the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 has already reached
410 ppm and continues to growth.
The challenge facing the world to limit future warming to tolerable levels is
extraordinarily fearful, and will likely require a level of global cooperation far
beyond any other previous environmental problem. Differently from the case of
CFCs for which substitutes were relatively easy to find, substituting fossil-C for
preventing CO 2 emission is not an easy task. Fossil-C touches all levels or our life,
everywhere. Fossil fuels have the highest energy density with respect to other
options (vide infra) and can be easily transported everywhere and used. Some
countries have large reserves of fossil-C and can live for decades without any threat
of energy scarcity. Therefore, they have the tendency to stay on the border of the
problem: they will not be saved in case of extreme events that are global. There is
really a need of full international cooperation to problem-solving. However, once
the atmospheric stabilization goal is fixed at 450 ppm, it is possible to calculate the
budget of total GHGs emissions for the entire world in order to achieve that
atmospheric stabilization goal. Such global budget obliges national, state, and
regional authorities to implement GHG emissions reduction targets and, consequently, it drives the energy–industry–transport-standard of life policies worldwide.
If some countries do not implement the correct policies, others should implement
stricter measures to keep the budget constant, which is not in the direction of the
UN-FCCC resolution. Nations should not ignore their ethical duties to the rest of
the world and should adopt energy policies for the implementation of equity
principles and responsible care. The observance of rules is frequently an explicit
element in international discussions about climate change policies and among
countries still today exist a variety of different behaviors [3].
But let us analyze some figures about the “2 °C maximum rise of temperature.”
To have an approximately 66% chance ([2a]) of keeping warming of our planet
below 2 °C, our global society must work as a single community to avoid that
global GHG emissions may exceed ca. 270 Gt CO2eq . It is worth recalling that we are
considering the bunch of GHGs and not only CO 2 ; for this reason, the unit Gt CO2eq
is used, which means that the environmental effect of a unit of each GHG is
expressed in terms of an equivalent amount of CO 2 that would produce the same
effect. Table 4.1 reports the GHGs as listed at the Kyoto 2007 IPCC Meeting.
The “global warming potential-GWP” of a GHG, reported in Table 4.1, indicates
the amount of warming a gas causes over a given period of time (normally
100 years). GWP is an index, with CO 2 having the reference index value of 1, and
the GWP for all other GHGs is the number of times more warming they cause
compared to CO 2 . For example, 1 kg of methane causes 25 times more warming
over a 100-year period compared to 1 kg of CO 2 , and so methane has a GWP of 25.
4.1 How Much of the GHGs Emission Should Be Cut? And by When?
47
policies to reach the second. As mentioned above, the reduction of the emission is
finalized to stabilize the atmospheric CO 2 level. The CO 2 emission global budget
for limiting global warming to 2 °C was calculated in 2013 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): to reach the target it would be necessary
to stabilize the CO 2 atmospheric level at 450 ppm with a 50% likelihood of success
[2b]. During 2019 the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 has already reached
410 ppm and continues to growth.
The challenge facing the world to limit future warming to tolerable levels is
extraordinarily fearful, and will likely require a level of global cooperation far
beyond any other previous environmental problem. Differently from the case of
CFCs for which substitutes were relatively easy to find, substituting fossil-C for
preventing CO 2 emission is not an easy task. Fossil-C touches all levels or our life,
everywhere. Fossil fuels have the highest energy density with respect to other
options (vide infra) and can be easily transported everywhere and used. Some
countries have large reserves of fossil-C and can live for decades without any threat
of energy scarcity. Therefore, they have the tendency to stay on the border of the
problem: they will not be saved in case of extreme events that are global. There is
really a need of full international cooperation to problem-solving. However, once
the atmospheric stabilization goal is fixed at 450 ppm, it is possible to calculate the
budget of total GHGs emissions for the entire world in order to achieve that
atmospheric stabilization goal. Such global budget obliges national, state, and
regional authorities to implement GHG emissions reduction targets and, consequently, it drives the energy–industry–transport-standard of life policies worldwide.
If some countries do not implement the correct policies, others should implement
stricter measures to keep the budget constant, which is not in the direction of the
UN-FCCC resolution. Nations should not ignore their ethical duties to the rest of
the world and should adopt energy policies for the implementation of equity
principles and responsible care. The observance of rules is frequently an explicit
element in international discussions about climate change policies and among
countries still today exist a variety of different behaviors [3].
But let us analyze some figures about the “2 °C maximum rise of temperature.”
To have an approximately 66% chance ([2a]) of keeping warming of our planet
below 2 °C, our global society must work as a single community to avoid that
global GHG emissions may exceed ca. 270 Gt CO2eq . It is worth recalling that we are
considering the bunch of GHGs and not only CO 2 ; for this reason, the unit Gt CO2eq
is used, which means that the environmental effect of a unit of each GHG is
expressed in terms of an equivalent amount of CO 2 that would produce the same
effect. Table 4.1 reports the GHGs as listed at the Kyoto 2007 IPCC Meeting.
The “global warming potential-GWP” of a GHG, reported in Table 4.1, indicates
the amount of warming a gas causes over a given period of time (normally
100 years). GWP is an index, with CO 2 having the reference index value of 1, and
the GWP for all other GHGs is the number of times more warming they cause
compared to CO 2 . For example, 1 kg of methane causes 25 times more warming
over a 100-year period compared to 1 kg of CO 2 , and so methane has a GWP of 25.
4.1 How Much of the GHGs Emission Should Be Cut? And by When?
47