At the UN climate change summit in Paris this week multiple countries are demanding that the 2°C goal of limiting global warming be discarded – and replaced with the more ambitious target of 1.5°C.
Ministers from across the globe appear to have been persuaded that a 2°C rise would be catastrophic for many countries in low-lying or hot regions.
According to research carried out in preparation for the Paris summit, 1.5°C of warming was vastly preferable to 2°C. A large number of scientists still believe the 1.5°C target is achievable with radical action, lending credibility to calls for a tougher target.
Low-lying and hot regions are not the only areas that would be threatened even if global warming were limited to less than 2°C but more than 1.5°C. This is because the temperature increases associated with climate change are set to be unlikely, with the largest changes set to be in the Arctic.
Edited from sources by Joseph Green. Sources: Independent, Irish Times, The Ecologist