Program Information

Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson on The Unforgiving Math for Staying Under 2 Degrees

Series:

Subtitle:

Part TWO of TWO

Program Type:

Weekly Program

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Prof. Kevin Anderson

Contributor:

Maria Gilardin Contact Contributor

Date Published:

May 3, 2016, 7:05 p.m.

Summary: Two numbers haunted the climate negotiations of COP 21 in Paris in December 2015: 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. Finally the vast majority of the world's countries agreed that global warming may not go over 2 degrees and that we really ought to stay under 1.5 degrees to save the island states and low coastal areas that are already flooding at the current 1 degree C warming.

Politicians and some scientists claim that we will invent technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere and therefore no urgent action is required now. Anderson explains BECCS, Biomass energy carbon capture and storage, the so far elusive promise to extract the already emitted CO2 from the air and store it underground. A Dr. Strangelove technology, according to Anderson.

Kevin Anderson calls for dramatic fossil fuel reductions within the next 5 years. He is Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester, and Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Credits: Thanks to Kevin Caners and his radio blog The Elephant

Notes:

Version 1: AndersonByCanersTWO