The goal of preventing temperatures from exceeding 1.5C is “deader than a doornail” as I told the Guardian (quoting James Hansen). We’ve simply waited too long to reduce global emissions, and now will firmly pass 1.5C in the next decade https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/18/climate-crisis-world-temperature-target
It is possible for us to bring global temperatures back down to 1.5C after overshoot, but the only lasting way to do that is through removing all the extra CO2 we’re going to add after passing 1.5C. We are now in climate debt: https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-growing-carbon-debt
Passing 1.5C will make impacts of climate change worse, but ultimately is more of a target than a climate threshold. Every tenth of a degree matters, and the lower we can keep peak warming the more we will minimize harms to human and natural systems.
@hausfath
Yes, but the climate fight has been a political one for like three decades now, and it doesn't seem wise to concede targets without inflicting pain on the opponents.
Sure, the climate will maul us all, but it does so without much concern for our attitude to net zero and as such cannot serve the political purpose of being the cost for a target missed.
