Health and food security benefits from climate change mitigation

Societies must find a way to stop the rapid growth in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to avoid a disastrous future for our planet. As the greatest contributor to global warming, CO2 is the natural focus of current climate negotiations. Unfortunately, one of the very properties that makes CO2 so problematic—the long time it stays in the atmosphere—creates high barriers to efforts aimed at reducing its emissions. First, the benefits of limiting CO2 emissions present themselves only after many decades, which is well beyond the focus of most politicians or corporations. Second, nations disagree over how much responsibility for reductions should be based on historical emissions or on current levels.