Net zero emissions: What's in a date?


Arguably the principal environmental burden facing inhabitants of Planet Earth is the prospect of "global warming" (or "global heating" as recently suggested as a more appropriate term by a senior UK Met Office scientist) caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect resulting from fossil fuel combustion.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the principal "greenhouse gas" (GHG) with an atmospheric residence time of about 100 years. Changes in atmospheric concentrations of such GHGs affect the energy balance of the global climate system. Human activities have led to dramatic increases since 1950 in atmospheric CO2; concentrations have risen from 330 parts per million (ppm) in 1975 to about 430 ppm currently. The most recent (2013) scientific assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserts that it is "extremely likely" that humans are the dominant influence on the observed global warming since the mid-20th Century."  ～ Geoffrey P. Hammond  @Phys.org
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