BONN, Germany (Landscape News) — The global economy must run on net zero carbon to sufficiently lower greenhouse gas emissions and meet international targets established at U.N. climate talks two years ago, said Alexander Lotsch, a World Bank scientist speaking at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments agreed to restrict global temperature increases to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

“All landscapes must become one giant carbon sink for the planet,” Lotsch said. “We cannot continue on the path we’re on, otherwise we’ll be cooking the planet and by the end of the century we’ll be in a place we’d rather not want to be — we have to start bending the curve on global greenhouse gas emissions.”

In a speech, Lotsch outlined three steps to forge change, suggesting that more intensive monitoring, expanding the elements included in landscapes, and increasing finance flows as evidence of effective implementation of carbon reducing activities expands might make an impact.