CanoeJulienPestiauxfMichelCornetfRajivChaturvedig
- a
- Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- b
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
- c
- WWF-International, Mexico City, Mexico
- d
- CONACYT, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Mexico City, Mexico
- e
- College of Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), TX, United States
- f
- CLIMACT, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- g
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa, India
Highlights
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The Global Calculator is able to demonstrate carbon mitigation pathways for both 2 °C and 1.5 °C targets.
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The model enables its users to design and reflect on new global energy strategies and policies.
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The sensitivity analysis shows each sector’s contribution for reducing GHG emissions globally.
Abstract
The Global Calculator (GC) can be used to assess a wide range of climate change mitigation pathways. The GC is an accessible integrated model which calculates the cumulative emissions of a basket of the main greenhouse gases that result from a set of technological and lifestyle choices made at the global level and as defined by the user within a single system dynamics tool. Using the GC, we simulated ambitious scenarios against business as usual trends in order to stay below 2 °C and 1.5 °C of maximum temperature change by the end of this century and carried out a sensitivity analysis of the entire GC model option space. We show that the calculator is useful for making broad simulations for energy, carbon and land use dynamics, and demonstrate how combined and sustained mitigation efforts across different sectors are urgently needed to meet climate targets.