Lost options commitment: how short-term policies affect long-term scope of action

Abstract

We propose to explore the sustainability of climate policies based on a novel commitment metric. This metric allows to quantify how future generations' scope of action is affected by short-term climate policy. In an example application, we show that following a moderate emission scenario like SSP2-4.5 could commit future generations to heavily rely on carbon dioxide removal or/and solar radiation modification to avoid unmanageable sea level rise.