Carbon taxes alone won't be enough to slow climate change and limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new study published in the journal Joule.

If the Paris Agreement target is to be met, researchers claim global carbon emissions must hit zero by 2070 and become negative afterwards, via carbon-capture technologies. But carbon taxes, on their own, won't be sufficient to shrink emissions to zero during the next half-century.

"The current system of penalizing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon taxes is not sufficient to avoid catastrophic climate change, even if very high taxes are enforced," Habiba Daggash, a doctoral student in energy systems at Imperial College London, said in a news release. "Therefore, using this strategy alone, the Paris Agreement that most countries have committed to could not be delivered."

In addition to taxing carbon, authors of the latest study suggest world governments and international policy makers must put a price on emissions.

"The system needs to be adapted to recognize that not only do emissions need to be penalized, but actions that result in permanent removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere must also be credited," Daggash said.

Mostly, policy makers have focused on pricing emissions through taxes. The latest analysis showed an increase in carbon taxes in the United Kingdom would be sufficient to drive investments in low-carbon technologies and meet short-term emissions goals. However, in climate and economic models, high carbon taxes failed to incentivize the development of carbon removal strategies.

If governments can find ways to encourage the development and deployment carbon removal strategies earlier, they may not have to raise carbon taxes as much over the long term.

"Early incentives could both reduce the cost of delivering the Paris Agreement and satisfy our long-term need for negative emissions," Habiba said.

Researchers are currently working to determine whether their findings are applicable to developing economies like Nigeria.

Sediment from Europe's oldest lake reveals 1 million years of climate history
Washington (UPI) Sep 4, 2019 - After five years of drilling in Lake Ohrid, Europe's oldest lake, scientists have extracted sediment cores comprising more than a million years of climate history.

The climate timeline, unprecedented in length, revealed a unique connection between the Mediterranean climate and the African monsoon.

Researchers began studying Lake Ohrid, which is located between Albania and North Macedonia, more than 15 years ago. In 2013, scientists began drilling. The deepest drilling, which occurred several hundred feet beneath the lake's surface, penetrated more than 1,800 feet underground.

As sediment cores were extracted over the last five years, scientists analyzed their layers for insights into the Mediterranean's climate, like changes in annual precipitation levels.

By comparing the geologic data with the predictions of climate models, scientists were able to calibrate their simulations of climate patterns in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, as well as make connections between different changes -- shifts in temperature and rainfall, for example.

"This way, our research helps us to better understand the causes of rain phases and to more accurately assess the effects of climate change for future predictions," Bernd Wagner, University of Bern geologist, said in a news release.

During their analysis of Lake Ohrid sediments, scientists found evidence of a correlation between periods of warming and increased winter precipitation in the northern Mediterranean.

The research -- published this week in the journal Nature -- also showed warmer temperatures triggered the development of low pressure systems over the western Mediterranean, particularly during autumn. The pattern correlated neatly with the strength and timing of the African monsoon.

"We discovered a teleconnection between the African monsoon and winter precipitation in the Mediterranean region, so between tropical climate systems and rainfall in the mid-latitudes thousands of kilometers away," said Alexander Francke, a research fellow at Wollongong University in Australia.

"Whenever incoming solar radiation from the sun is enhanced in the northern hemisphere you have this northward migration of the tropical climate system and we see increased rainfall in winter at Lake Ohrid. We see this mechanism consistently over the past 1.3 million years."

Researchers were also able to precisely date the lake's origins.

"We have shown that the lake formed exactly 1.36 million years ago and has existed continuously ever since," said Bern geologist Hendrik Vogel. "We were thrilled when we realized that we had retrieved one of the longest and most complete lake sediment cores from the oldest lake in Europe. Getting the chance to obtain high-resolution regional climate data for a period of over 1.3 million years is the dream of every climate researcher."

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Plants could remove six years of carbon dioxide emissions
London, UK (SPX) Aug 23, 2019
By analysing 138 experiments, researchers have mapped the potential of today's plants and trees to store extra carbon by the end of the century. The results show trees and plants could remove six years of current emissions by 2100, but only if no further deforestation occurs. The study, led by Stanford University and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and including Imperial College London researchers, is published in Nature Climate Change. As plants grow they take in carbon dioxid ... read more