%0 Journal Article
%@ 23284277
%A Rockström, J.
%A Schellnhuber, H.J.
%A Hoskins, B.
%A Ramanathan, V.
%A Schlosser, P.
%A Brasseur, G.P.
%A Gaffney, O.
%A Nobre, C.
%A Meinsheusen, M.
%A Rogelj, J.
%A Lucht, W.
%D 2016
%F iiasa:13767
%I Wiley & Sons, Inc.
%J Earth's Future
%K Climate Change; Decarbonisation; Paris Agreement; Carbon Roadmap; Carbon Budget; Earth system
%N 10
%P 465-470
%R 10.1002/2016EF000392
%T The world's biggest gamble
%U https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/13767/
%V 4
%X The scale of the decarbonisation challenge to meet the Paris Agreement is underplayed in the public arena. It will require precipitous emission reductions and a new carbon sink on the scale of the ocean sink within 40 years. Even then, the world is extremely likely to overshoot. A catastrophic failure of policy, for example waiting another decade for transformative policy and full commitments to fossil-free economies, will have irreversible and deleterious repercussions for humanity's remaining time on Earth. Only a global zero carbon roadmap will put the world on a course to phase-out greenhouse gas emissions and create the essential carbon sinks for Earth-system stability, without which, world prosperity is not possible.