Carbon Budget

A carbon budget is the cumulative amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions permitted over a period of time to keep within a certain temperature threshold, such as the 1.5°C or 2°C goals set by the Paris Agreement. This global budget is often translated into annual budgets, which can be allocated among countries, sectors, or individual entities to guide climate policies and emissions reduction targets. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to have a 50% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the world can emit no more than 580 gigatonnes of CO2 from 2018 onwards.