What might have been: US introduces plan for “deep decarbonization”

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The stated goal of recent international climate negotiations includes keeping global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial conditions. The Paris climate agreement included emissions limits that everyone recognized would be insufficient to meet that goal, but it was meant to get all countries on the path of controlling their emissions and set the stage for a progressive tightening of standards over time.

Talks going on in Marrakech are the first to take place after the Paris agreement went into force, and the US chose them as the stage to reveal just how much tighter its limits could be. And even as Donald Trump is preparing to roll back progress on emissions, the Obama administration described plans for cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

The report notes the US has now severely weakened the link between economic growth and carbon emissions. Over the last seven years, the economy is up by 10 percent, while energy-driven emissions are down by nine. It also argues that placing ambitious limits on future emissions is the best strategy for further economic growth: "Pursuing high-carbon strategies (or business as usual) will lead to large and possibly catastrophic damages to the future US and global economies." Starting sooner rather than later, the US argues, will help us avoid sudden economic jolts and the need to retire fossil fuel assets before the end of their useful lifetime.