Carbon Dioxide Warming Effects Felt Just a Decade After Being Emitted

It takes just 10 years for a single emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) to have its maximum warming effects on the Earth.

This is according to researchers at the Carnegie Institute for Science who have dispelled a common misconception that the main warming effects from a CO2 emission will not be felt for several decades.

The results, which have been published 3 December in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, also confirm that warming can persist for more than a century and suggest that the benefits from emission reductions will be felt by those who have worked to curb the emissions and not just future generations.

Some of these benefits would be the avoidance of extreme weather events, such as droughts, heatwaves, and flooding, which are expected to increase concurrently with the change in temperature.

However, some of the bigger climate impacts from warming, such as sea-level rise, melting ice sheets and long-lasting damage to ecosystems, will have a much bigger time lag and may not occur for hundreds or thousands of years later, according to the researchers.

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