Staff profile

The Anthropocene equation

Gaffney, O., W. Steffen

2017 - Journal / article

The dominant external forces influencing the rate of change of the Earth System have been astronomical and geophysical during the planet’s 4.5-billion-year existence. In the last six decades, anthropogenic forcings have driven exceptionally rapid rates of change in the Earth System. This new regime can be represented by an ‘Anthropocene equation’, where other forcings tend to zero, and the rate of change under human influence ...

Integration: the key to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals

Stafford-Smith, M., D. Griggs, O. Gaffney, F. Ullah, B. Reyers, N. Kanie, B. Stigson, P. Shrivastava, M. Leach, D. O’Connell.

2017 - Journal / article

On 25 September, 2015, world leaders met at the United Nations in New York, where they adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 goals and 169 targets set out an agenda for sustainable development for all nations that embraces economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. Now, the agenda moves from agreeing the goals to implementing and ultimately achieving them. Across the goals, 42 targets focus ...

A roadmap for rapid decarbonization

Rockström, J., Gaffney, O., Rogelj, J. et. al.

2017 - Journal / article

Although the Paris Agreement's goals (1) are aligned with science (2) and can, in principle, be technically and economically achieved (3), alarming inconsistencies remain between science-based targets and national commitments. Despite progress during the 2016 Marrakech climate negotiations, long-term goals can be trumped by political short-termism. Following the Agreement, which became international law earlier than expected, ...

The world's biggest gamble

Rockström, J., Schellnhuber, H.J., Hoskins, B., Ramanathan, V., Schlosser, P., Brasseur, G.P., Gaffney, O., Nobre, C., Meinshausen, M., Rogerlj, J. and Lucht, W.

2016 - Journal / article

The scale of the decarbonisation challenge to meet the Paris Agreement is underplayed in the public arena. It will require precipitous emissions reductions within 40 years and a new carbon sink on the scale of the ocean sink. Even then, the world is extremely likely to overshoot. A catastrophic failure of policy, for example, waiting another decade for transformative policy and full commitments to fossil-free economies, will h...