What Should the Climate Goal Be, 1.5°C or 2°C?
Tejal Kanitkar
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Tejal Kanitkar: Assistant Professor, Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, tejal.kanitkar@tiss.edu
Journal, 2015, vol. 5, issue 2, 60-72
Abstract:
The Paris Agreement on climate change signed by 195 countries in Paris on December 11, 2015, calls on countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to restrict temperature rise to well below 2°C from pre-industrial levels. The target of a 1.5°C limit on temperature rise has now explicitly been identified as a goal to be achieved. The demand to restrict temperature rise to 1.5°C rather than 2°C has long been articulated by the group of countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, since a 2°C rise in temperatures will lead to greater risks from ocean acidification and extreme events in these countries and will very likely have a significant impact on crop production as well. At the same time, large less-developed countries such as India have been opposed to this more stringent target as it would leave very little carbon space for governments to provide basic needs to their people. This paper undertakes a comparative review of the impact of and mitigation requirements implied by the 1.5°C and 2°C targets and discusses the implications of the Paris Agreement in the light of this review.
Keywords: Paris Agreement; carbon budgets; 1.5°C; 2°C; climate change mitigation; climate change impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fas:journl:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:60-72
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