Why Technical Fixes Won’t Mitigate Climate Change

Abstract

We may have already surpassed prudent limits for atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, and have exceeded (or are near) safe limits for a number of other Earth system processes. If fossil fuels maintain their present share, bringing the expected year 2050 world population up to US primary energy levels would involve a 6-fold rise in energy consumption, with a similar rise in CO 2 emissions. We argue that even a combination of the various conventional approaches for climate mitigation will prove to be ‘too little too late’. If use of geoengineering to delay some of the consequences of climate change is judged too risky, we conclude the only remaining approach for meeting the needs of all humans while staying within the Earth’s bio-capacity is to abandon our current growth-oriented economies. Even this strategy could face difficulties if population does not peak soon.