"A group of scientists, including Jamaica’s own Professor Michael Taylor and 20 others from across the world, has come out with an urgent plea to tighten the reins on climate change.

In an article published in the journal Science and titled ‘The Human imperative of stabilising climate change at 1.5 degrees Celsius’, they maintain that the world should aim for 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming (above the pre-industrial levels) and must not miss.

In it, the group of 21 scientists – including Taylor, who is dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies, Mona – revealed that “In broad terms, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require an annual investment in the energy sector between 2016 and 2050 of $1.46 to $3.51 trillion (US$2010) in energy supply and $640 to $910 billion in energy demand measures in order to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”.

Net-zero gas emissions is when man-made greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by emissions-removal interventions or otherwise through the elimination of emissions.

“On the other hand,” the scientists say in the article, “the mean net present value (in 2008) of the damage that would be avoided by 2200 by making these investments estimated as totalling $496 trillion (based on the value of the US dollar in 2010).

“This, together with other damage that is difficult to quantify – for example, disruption and migration of human communities; reductions in ecosystem services associated with biodiversity loss – suggests that the potential economic benefits arising from limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius may be at least four or five times the size of the investments needed in the energy system until 2050,” the group added."

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