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Environment

Prepare For 6 °C Of Warming, Report Says

by Cheryl Hogue
November 12, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 46

Given current rates of greenhouse gas emissions, the world should gird itself for 6 °C of human-caused climate warming over preindustrial levels by 2100, says a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Released last week, the report by the international auditing firm assesses progress by developed and emerging economies on reducing their collective rate of carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product. This measurement is called carbon intensity. The world has reduced this rate by an average of 0.8% per year since 2000, the report finds. It says this reduction in carbon intensity is only a fraction of what is needed to hold anthropogenic global warming to below 2 °C, which is an international goal that countries set in 2009. To avoid exceeding the 2 °C target, the PwC report says carbon intensity would have to plummet by an unprecedented average of 5.1% per year through 2050. “Businesses, governments, and communities across the world need to plan for a warming world,” the report concludes.

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