In 2018 the Earth was already in average about 1°C warmer than in pre-industrial times. Emissions of CO2 and of other greenhouse gases are continuously growing, and the amount of CO2 that remains possible to emit – the “carbon budget” – before passing the threshold of 1.5°C warming foreseen by the Paris Agreement is quite small. It is in the next five to ten years that major efforts have to be done in order to put emissions on the right trajectory towards zeroing them by 2050 at the latest.
Andrea Tilche, UiT The Arctic University of Norway – Carbon emissions and the carbon budget