Comment on 'The climate mitigation gap

Education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions'

verfasst von

Philippe Van Basshuysen, Eric Brandstedt

Abstract

Wynes and Nicholas (2017) argue that the most effective action to reduce individual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is to have one fewer child. We raise methodological concerns about the way in which the authors attribute responsibility for emissions: they rely on multiple counting when calculating the emissions of future generations, and they exclude scenarios in which global emission trajectories become net-zero or negative. This may distort recommendations from policy makers and educators who rely on their study. We propose an alternative way of attributing responsibility that avoids multiple counting. Investigating the implications of having children under this proposal with regards to the full range of different scenarios, including likelihood analyses, calls for further studies.

Externe Organisation(en)

London School of Economics and Political Science
Lund University

Typ

Meinungsbeitrag

Journal

Environmental research letters

Band

13

ISSN

1748-9318

Publikationsdatum

04.2018

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Erneuerbare Energien, Nachhaltigkeit und Umwelt, Allgemeine Umweltwissenschaft, Öffentliche Gesundheit, Umwelt- und Arbeitsmedizin

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen, SDG 7 – Erschwingliche und saubere Energie, SDG 13 – Klimaschutzmaßnahmen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab213 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aac2ee (Zugang: Offen)