Some people hold the mistaken idea that the only way to solve climate change is to go back to a stone age style of living—maybe bronze age if we’re careful. While that’s not true, describing the necessary changes to our energy system can leave you imagining that we need an all-out moonshot—or several.

There has even been criticism of whether the scenarios that limit global warming to 2°C are plausible, given that they rely on large-scale, active removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere. But an interesting new scenario published this week shows that even greater climate progress could be achieved without a single carbon capture plant, all while improving the global standard of living. The key to the new plan is efficiency.