A budget is typically a plan for how and when to use certain resources and for what purpose. And a carbon budget is no exception. Based on a calculation of how much greenhouse gases humanity has left to emit to meet our collective climate targets, carbon budgets help identify the amount and speed with which we need to shrink our carbon footprint. It also helps determine how far off track we are from solving the climate crisis.

Carbon budgets should be guided by the requirements of climate science, most notably the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to below 1.5°C.

The speed with which humanity, and especially wealthy, industrialised countries, are burning through our remaining carbon budget reveals how low our collective ‘climate ambition’ currently is. 

Carbon Market Watch consistently argues that climate targets must realistically take account of humanity’s remaining carbon budget and distribute that fairly. Stalling today with a promise to accelerate climate action decades in the future using as yet unproven or non-existent technological fixes is a high-risk strategy that can cause humanity to overshoot and unfairly burdens future generations with the consequences of our inaction.