Adopting a new “carbon law” that halves carbon emissions each decade would catalyze disruptive innovation and drive governments and businesses to act with the urgency needed to achieve the emissions reductions agreed to in the Paris Agreement.In a new article in the journal Science, the approach, modeled on Moore’s Law in computing, would reinforce efforts to reduce emissions, and maximize the chances that we will stay within the world’s remaining carbon budget needed to keep global warming below the dangerous 2°C mark. Along with carbon emissions halving every decade, the approach would see green energy continuing to double every five years.

“We are already at the start of this trajectory. In the last decade, the share of renewables in the energy sector has doubled every 5.5 years. If doubling continues at this pace fossil fuels will exit the energy sector well before 2050,” says lead author Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

The “carbon law” would need to be complemented by increased use of renewable energy sources and other new efficiency technologies.

“Our only future is low-carbon and clean energy,” says Keith Tuffley, B Team CEO & Managing Partner, “The science and the economics are clear—we can’t afford to wait. The carbon law approach is ambitious, yet relatively simple to follow, and can inject the necessary urgency needed to limit global warming well under the dangerous 2-degree threshold."

You can read more about the Carbon Law in the journal Science, here.