City Propositions A-E November 6, 2012 City of Houston Bond Election

Governments and leading climate scientists agree that to avoid dangerous climate change, the global average temperature increase above pre-industrial levels must stay below 2oC.1 A ‘Low-Carbon Economy’ is defined as a world economy operating within these limits. Even to achieve a ‘likely’ probability – that is at least a 66% chance of success2 – of limiting temperature increase to this level requires global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reduce by 50-70% by 2050 relative to 1990 levels.3 This requires significant emissions mitigation leading to global annual GHG emissions well below 20 gigatonnes CO2-e by 2050.4 The lower the GHG emissions, the greater the chance of avoiding...