New review paper on three decades of failure to reduce emissions
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-011104Title: Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven't We Bent the Global Emissions Curve?
Abstract
Despite three decades of political efforts and a wealth of research on the causes and catastrophic
impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise and are 60%
higher today than they were in 1990. Exploring this rise through nine thematic lenses-covering
issues of climate governance, the fossil fuel industry, geopolitics, economics, mitigation modeling,
energy systems, inequity, lifestyles, and social imaginaries-draws out multifaceted reasons for our
collective failure to bend the global emissions curve. However, a common thread that emerges
across the reviewed literature is the central role of power, manifest in many forms, from a dog-
matic political-economic hegemony and influential vested interests to narrow techno-economic
mindsets and ideologies of control. Synthesizing the various impediments to mitigation reveals
how delivering on the commitments enshrined in the Paris Agreement now requires an urgent
and unprecedented transformation away from today's carbon- and energy-intensive development
paradigm.
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Good health to you and yours,
Nicholas Poggioli
University of Michigan
ONE Communications Team
www.nicholaspoggioli.com------------------------------