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1.5 °C and climate research after the Paris Agreement

Nature Climate Change volume 6, pages 222–224 (2016)Cite this article

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The Paris Agreement contains an ambition to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, changing the context for policy-relevant research and extending a challenge to the IPCC and researchers.

To some commentators' surprise, the Paris Agreement reached in December 2015 under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) included the explicit intention to “pursue efforts to limit the [global] temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”. Given that countries' stated ambitions, in the form of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), fall well short of limiting warming to 2 °C1, let alone to 1.5 °C, one might wonder whether negotiators were whistling in the dark.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS, UK

    Mike Hulme

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  1. Mike Hulme
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Correspondence to Mike Hulme.

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Hulme, M. 1.5 °C and climate research after the Paris Agreement. Nature Clim Change 6, 222–224 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2939

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