Current and cumulative emissions do not tell the whole story
2020 Emissions:
Current emissions show a limited forward-looking view of climate impact.
Cumulative Emissions:
Cumulative emissions show a total view of past and long-term future damages.
Climate Impact*:
Once in the air, CO2 continues to harm our environment year after year.
We need to think about how long previous emissions have been warming the planet to account for environmental impact.
For example, CO2 in the air since 1900 has had 122 years of negative impact (warming the ocean, triggering feedback loops…) whereas the CO2 emitted in 2021 has only had 1 year. One way of accounting for this impact is called a ton-year.
To move forward, we must properly account for historical emissions and value immediate emissions reductions more than future promises.
Any emissions reduced today will have a far greater impact 20 years from now than emissions reduced in 2042.
Encouraging emission reductions TODAY (instead of tomorrow) is what’s going to make the biggest difference to our future.
We want to create an open-source Climate Ledger with transparent accounting of country and company emissions (historical, future and reductions).
*This analysis does not yet account for methane and other GHGs, carbon cycle adjustments, a more complete treatment of radiative forcing dynamics, and other factors. There's plenty of room for discussion and improvement. We could use your help.
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