Climate change: The 1.5C threshold explained
Climate change: The 1.5C threshold explained Getty Images As well as rapidly reducing emissions, societies will need to adapt to the immense challenges of a world at 1.5C warming As leaders gather at COP28 in Dubai to discuss the climate crisis and negotiate how the world will address it, we consider one of the most important numbers in climate change: 1.5C. "Before the Paris Agreement there wasn't really a focus point for the world to aim for, to reduce the climate change process," says Pauline Dube, an environmental scientist at the University of Botswana, also a coordinating lead author on the IPCC's 1.5C report. "You don't need a model to know that, if you are that close, we're going to reach 1.5C in around a decade or so at that rate of warming," says Allen. Similarly, in 2022, Bill Gates said he saw "no chance" of the world staying within the 1.5C threshold, but believes innovation in climate technologies, such as forms of carbon capture, are promising solutions to climate change.
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