Accelerating the Renewable Energy Revolution to Get Back to the Holocene.

The UN's Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming between 1.5 and 2°C is dangerously obsolete and needs to be replaced by a commitment to restore Earth's climate. We now know that continued use of fossil fuels associated with 1.5–2°C scenarios would result in hundreds of millions of pollution deaths and likely trigger multiple tipping elements in the Earth system. Unexpected advances in renewable power production and storage have radically expanded our climate response capacity. The cost of renewable technologies has plummeted at least 30‐year faster than projected, and renewables now dominate energy investment and growth. This renewable revolution creates an opportunity and responsibility to raise our climate ambitions. Rather than aiming for climate mitigation—making things less bad—we should commit to climate restoration—a rapid return to Holocene‐like climate conditions where we know humanity and life on Earth can thrive. Based on observed and projected energy system trends, we estimate that the global economy could reach zero emissions by 2040 and potentially return atmospheric CO2 to pre‐industrial levels by 2100–2150. However, this would require an intense and sustained rollout of renewable energy and negative emissions technologies on very large scales. We describe these clean electrification scenarios and outline technical and socioeconomic strategies that would increase the likelihood of restoring a Holocene‐like climate in the next 100 years. We invite researchers, policymakers, regulators, educators, and citizens in all countries to share and promote this positive message of climate restoration for human wellbeing and planetary stability. Plain Language Summary: New research in global ecology and public health shows that the consequences of burning fossil fuels are much more severe than previously understood. Current global warming targets are not enough to protect us from sea level rise, ecosystem collapse, and hundreds of millions of human deaths from fossil fuel pollution. Thankfully, the cost of renewable energy technologies has dropped below the cost of fossil fuels decades faster than predicted. This has triggered a renewable revolution that is transforming the global energy system. Our paper considers the feasibility of accelerating this transition through policy, investment, and strategic research. We conclude that there is a viable pathway to restoring Earth's climate through clean electrification and carbon capture. We call for a global commitment to restore pre‐industrial climate conditions within a century and describe what approaches would increase our chances of success. Accelerating the renewable revolution would move us toward a sustainable civilization by eliminating air pollution, stabilizing climate, reducing energy costs, and enhancing living standards worldwide. Because there is no safe level of climate disruption or pollution death, we believe it is our responsibility to restore a Holocene‐like climate, which we know can support human civilization and other life on Earth. Key Points: Goals of 1.5–2°C are not safe given current understanding of ecosystem climate sensitivity and high social costs of fossil fuel pollutionClimate restoration‐rapidly reestablishing Holocene‐like conditions‐has not been fully considered because of socioeconomic obstaclesStrategic financing and prioritization of clean electrification could create pathways back to the Holocene within a century [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]