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Cumulative emissions and climate policy

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The emerging scientific focus on cumulative carbon emissions may make climate negotiations harder. But, it serves to clarify the scale and scope of climate mitigation needed to meet potential temperature targets.

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Figure 1: Traditional versus cumulative emissions framework.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, PO Box 600, New Zealand

    David J. Frame & Adrian H. Macey

  2. Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, PO Box 600, New Zealand

    Adrian H. Macey

  3. ECI, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

    Myles R. Allen

  4. Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    Myles R. Allen

Authors
  1. David J. Frame
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  2. Adrian H. Macey
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  3. Myles R. Allen
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Correspondence to David J. Frame.

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Frame, D., Macey, A. & Allen, M. Cumulative emissions and climate policy. Nature Geosci 7, 692–693 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2254

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