The Atmospheric Physics Behind Net Zero

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "The Atmospheric Physics Behind Net Zero" was published on November 29, 2022 and runs 121 minutes.

November 29, 2022 ·121m · Gresham College Lectures

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Summary

Before net zero, climate policy was all about contraction and convergence of emissions between rich and poor to achieve, in the words of the Rio Convention, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” at a safe level. But scientists struggled to establish what that “safe” level was, making little progress in over a quarter of a century. And it was not because we were incompetent: for fundamental reasons in physics and probability theory, we were asking the wrong questio...

Episode Description

Before net zero, climate policy was all about contraction and convergence of emissions between rich and poor to achieve, in the words of the Rio Convention, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” at a safe level. But scientists struggled to establish what that “safe” level was, making little progress in over a quarter of a century. And it was not because we were incompetent: for fundamental reasons in physics and probability theory, we were asking the wrong question.

A lecture by Myles Allen

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/atmospheric-zero

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