This chapter looks at the shape of the emission reduction trajectory to determine how to reach net zero emissions by the second half of the century. In 2010, the global greenhouse gases annual emissions reached 50 gigatons of CO2 equivalent, so to reach zero, that decrease must happen very significantly and rapidly. To stay within the 2-degree limit, we need to get down to 22 gigaton of CO2 equivalent by 2050. In the run-up to Paris in December, 2015, countries are preparing emission reduction pledges to the year 2030, mostly to do with fossil fuel in industry as this is the larget source of emissions. Two examples of pathways that are likely to give a chance of staying within the 2 degree limit are the representative concentration pathway 2.6 which reached approximately 12 gigaton of CO2 in 2050, and the 2 degree scenario which has 15 gigaton of CO2 by 2050. We are not doing what it takes to reach this objective, however. It is not always clear what the targets pledged by countries are because some are expressed as deviations form business-as-usual emissions and others as improvements in the carbon intensity of GDP, so we are left to deal with ranges. The world population is expected to grow to more than 9.5 billion in 2050. This means that per capita emission of CO2 energy needs to decrease from 4.6 to 1.6 tons by 2050. This must take into account historical contributions of countries and the differing contributions of developing and industrialized countries. This video is part of the module The 2-Degree Carbon Budget. This video is not available under a Creative Commons license and should not be considered open content. However, the video is freely available for viewing or sharing with individuals or groups for educational purposes, such as in a classroom, workshop, or training. Please give attribution to the SDG Academy. Content may not be used for commercial purposes.

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