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Preparing for a post-net-zero world

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 775–777 (2022)Cite this article

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Current greenhouse gas emissions will continue to affect the climate even after we reach net-zero emissions. We must understand how and prepare for a cooling planet.

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Fig. 1: The factors that will influence the nature of a post-net-zero climate.

Data availability

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature dataset (‘Monthly Global Average Temperature (annual summary)’)20 was used to generate the global mean surface temperature series in Fig. 1 and is publicly available here: http://berkeleyearth.org/data/.

Code availability

The code used to produce Fig. 1 is available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

A.D.K. and J.K.S. acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council (DE180100638 and FL160100028, respectively). A.D.K. and T.Z. acknowledge the Australian Government National Environmental Science Program. Z.J.R.N. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant 101003536.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew D. King, Harry L. O. McClelland, Celia McMichael, Zebedee R. J. Nicholls & J. M. Kale Sniderman

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew D. King

  3. Melbourne Climate Futures, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew D. King, Jacqueline Peel, Kathryn J. Bowen, Celia McMichael & Zebedee R. J. Nicholls

  4. Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Jacqueline Peel & Kathryn J. Bowen

  5. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia

    Tilo Ziehn

  6. Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Kathryn J. Bowen

  7. Climate Resource, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Zebedee R. J. Nicholls

  8. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

    Zebedee R. J. Nicholls

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  1. Andrew D. King
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  8. J. M. Kale Sniderman
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Contributions

A.D.K. conceived the study, led the writing and designed Fig. 1. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andrew D. King.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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King, A.D., Peel, J., Ziehn, T. et al. Preparing for a post-net-zero world. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 775–777 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01446-x

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