The reality is that most governments 13 The true costs of fossil fuels to human well-being and the biosphere is not imbedded in their price. Governments and businesses have learned to make assurances that they are working on clean energies and reduced emissions, but in view of the documented emissions pathway it is not inappropriate to describe their rhetoric as being basically 'greenwash'. Yet the resulting 1997 Kyoto Protocol was so ineffective that global fossil fuel emissions have since accelerated by 2.5% per year, compared to 1.5% per year in the preceding two decades. Governments have recognized the need to stabilize atmospheric composition at a level that avoids dangerous anthropogenic climate change, as formalized in the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. Consequently, today's changes of atmospheric composition will be felt most by today's young people and the unborn, in other words, by people who have no possibility of protecting their own rights and their future well-being, and who currently depend on others who make decisions today that have consequences over future decades and centuries. As a result, global climate responds only slowly, at least initially, to natural and human-made forcings of the system. The climate system has great inertia because it contains a 4-kilometer deep ocean and 2-kilometer thick ice sheets. The risk of deleterious or even catastrophic effects of climate change driven by increasing CO 2 is now widely recognized by the relevant scientific community. It is also well-understood that most of the CO 2 produced by burning fossil fuels will remain in the climate system for millennia. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emitted in burning of fossil fuels is, according to best available science, the main cause of global warming in the past century. Background Humanity is now the dominant force driving changes of Earth's atmospheric composition and thus future climate on the planet. Governments must act immediately to significantly reduce fossil fuel emissions to protect our children's future and avoid loss of crucial ecosystem services, or else be complicit in this loss and its consequences. If governments fail to adopt policies that cause rapid phase-down of fossil fuel emissions, today's children, future generations, and nature will bear the consequences through no fault of their own.
Despite overwhelming evidence, governments and the fossil fuel industry continue to propose that all fossil fuels must be exploited before the world turns predominantly to clean energies. A scenario that stabilizes climate and preserves nature is technically possible and it is essential for the future of humanity. We describe scenarios that define how rapidly fossil fuel emissions must be phased down to restore Earth's energy balance and stabilize global climate.
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