What are carbon budgets?

A carbon budget is like the amount of cookies you can eat before your tummy gets too full.

Imagine you and your friends are having a cookie party. There's a big jar of cookies, and everyone knows that if they all eat too many, they’ll get sick. So, they agree on how many cookies each person can have, that’s like a carbon budget.

Think of Earth as the kid at the cookie party. The cookies are like carbon dioxide, which is what we breathe out when we use things like cars and electricity. Scientists have figured out how much carbon dioxide Earth can handle before it gets too hot, that’s the carbon budget.

Every year, people around the world “eat” some of those cookies (they release more carbon dioxide). If they eat too many, the jar gets empty faster, and Earth might get sick, that means more extreme weather, like hotter days or bigger storms.

So, a carbon budget helps us know how much we can use before things get too hot, just like knowing how many cookies you can eat without getting too full!