Climate change 2014: well, what now?

On 13 April in Berlin, Germany, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that assesses the options for mitigating climate change and their underlying technological, economic and institutional requirements. It transparently lays out risks, uncertainty and ethical foundations of climate change mitigation policies on the global, national and sub-national level, investigates mitigation measures for all major sectors and assesses investment and finance issues.

According to the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, it would be possible, using a wide array of technological measures and changes in behaviour, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. However, only major institutional and technological changes will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold.