Houghton Lectures

Reaching net zero carbon balance in the 21st Century.

The Paris Agreement on climate change has an ambition of balancing the global emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century in order to limit climate change and its impacts. This lecture will explain the scientific understanding behind the links between global temperature change and cumulative carbon emissions, and detail the underlying time scales, amplitude of change, and uncertainties. It will present a range of model projections of climate change this century and discuss their implicit assumptions about future carbon management and future response of the natural carbon cycle to climate change. The lecture will also discuss the risks of large and non-linear responses of the carbon cycle to a changing climate (so-called ‘tipping points’) and their potential consequences. It will conclude the full lecture series by suggesting ways to support societal responses to climate change that the students might like to pursue throughout their careers.