Roadmap to reduce CO2 emissions by half in 2030

• From New York, Greta Thunberg, at the Climate Summit: "They have stolen my dreams and my childhood!"
• Up to 150 countries. Young people from all over the world demonstrate against climate change

How to reduce CO2 emissions by half in a decade. That is the purpose of the recent report of the so-called Exponential Roadmap , a team of 55 experts - in fields such as mobility, energy, food or construction - that have identified up to 36 "solutions" to go around the tortilla by 2030 and limit the global rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees.

"In the next decade we have the opportunity to launch the largest economic transition in history," warns Christiana Figueres, former head of climate change at the UN, now leading Mission 2020. "The social and economic turning points they are aligning, and all we need is to have a guide to reach the goal of zero emissions by 2050. "

Solar and wind energy (which already have a lower cost than the energy generated with fossil fuels in much of the world) can grow exponentially and replace coal, as is happening in countries like the United Kingdom. Electric vehicles could reach 90% of the fleet in 2030, drastically reducing transport emissions, with the necessary economic incentives, infrastructure investments and ambitious political decisions.

Avoiding deforestation will be as important as efforts to reforest the planet , together with an improvement in the management of the territory. "Agriculture and food are the darkest chapters and where it will be more difficult to reduce emissions by half," admits Brent Loken of the EAT Foundation, which calls for a thorough review of agricultural subsidies and marketing campaigns. awareness to reduce meat consumption and promote more sustainable forms of production and consumption.

The construction sector requires profound changes, to prioritize energy efficiency and the reuse of materials. The role of the social movements will also be key to increasing pressure on politicians and raising public awareness about the necessary changes in the lifestyle of developed countries, warn the authors of the Exponential Roadmap report, which they put on the table the role of digital technologies to cut emissions and boost innovation (with appeal to giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook).

" The priority is to reach the peak of emissions in 2020 and from there start the race to reduce them by half in 2030," says Johan Falk, an expert at the Stockholm Resilience Center and Future Earth. "An immediate priority is create an environmental policy supported by the circular economy, "says Falk. "Closing cycles can serve to drastically reduce emissions in the industrial sector."

For Manuel Pugal-Vidal, at the head of the WWF Department of Climate and Energy, "a substantial step forward is the introduction of the zero emission target by 2050", something that the Governments of the United Kingdom, France, Norway and Sweden have already done . " Developed countries have a responsibility to reduce emissions faster . And not only governments, cities and regions can make the change."

"Although the scale of the transformation is unprecedented, the speed at which it must occur is within our reach," concludes Johan Rockström, director of the Climate Impact Research Institute in Postdam. "We are in a real race against the clock, but many large companies and many economic sectors have marked the way and completed very significant transitions in the space of ten years."

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