The world’s population could live a prosperous, European-style lifestyle by 2050 at the same time as avoiding dangerous climate change, according to a new Global Calculator developed by the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
DECCs online tool shows how global prosperity can increase, even as emissions fall by 60 per cent from current levels in line with climate targets. Of course this is contingent on undertaking massive changes to how we use energy, such as shifting from hydrocarbon fuel to nuclear and low carbon technologies, as well as much wider use of electricity for transportation and heating.
Interestingly DECCs tool highlights how the cost of achieving this radical series of changes to energy consumption might actually be less expensive than tackling carbon emissions in the long run.
The new global tool has already been used by organisations, including DECC, Shell, the International Energy Agency and Friends of the Earth, to imagine the world in 2050. Importantly, many 2050 scenarios are not compatible with a safe climate.
The tool can be accessed here
Enjoy making your own series of personal choices about diet, lifestyle, appliance use, transport, buildings, land use, energy, and industry to model the world in 2050. Remember that these “trade-offs” have implications on social cost of climate change, affect internationally agreed climate targets, as well as being a death sentence for many of tomorrows most vulnerable communities.