According to the most severe situation developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), mitigating the long-term effects of greenhouse gases will require that emissions reach their peak over the next 10–15 years and decline 50 percent over 2000 levels by 2050. This would limit global temperature rise to 2–2.4 degrees Celsius. With increased use of clean technologies and better energy efficiency, the major sectors of energy, industry, transport and agriculture all have the potential for improvement. But for achieving the stabilization of Green house gases there involves cost of mitigation.
Mitigation costs of stabilizing CO2 concentrations
Factors that affect CO2 mitigation costs include
- Future emissions in the absence of policy intervention (“baselines”)
- The concentration target and route to stabilization, which determine the carbon budget available for emissions
- The behaviour of the natural carbon cycle, which influences the emissions carbon budget available for any chosen concentration target and pathway
- The cost differential between fossil fuels and carbon-free alternatives and between different fossil fuels
- Technological progress and the rate of adoption of technologies that emit less carbon per unit of energy produced
- Transitional costs associated with capital stock turnover, which increase if carried out prematurely
- The degree of international cooperation, which determines the extent to which low cost mitigation options in different parts of the world are implemented
- Assumptions about the discount rate used to compare costs at different points in time.
- Future emissions in the absence of policy intervention (“baselines”)
- The concentration target and route to stabilization, which determine the carbon budget available for emissions
- The behaviour of the natural carbon cycle, which influences the emissions carbon budget available for any chosen concentration target and pathway
- The cost differential between fossil fuels and carbon-free alternatives and between different fossil fuels
- Technological progress and the rate of adoption of technologies that emit less carbon per unit of energy produced
- Transitional costs associated with capital stock turnover, which increase if carried out prematurely
- The degree of international cooperation, which determines the extent to which low cost mitigation options in different parts of the world are implemented
- Assumptions about the discount rate used to compare costs at different points in time.
