The more we let the climate go adrift, the more the world will be unjust

The special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a few weeks ago was eagerly awaited. Why? This report focuses on the climate objective of a maximum 1.5°C increase compared to the average temperatures of the pre-industrial era. This “1.5°C objective” was set out in the Paris Agreement – which was a prerequisite for certain countries extremely vulnerable to climate change, such as the small islands. However, in 2015, the scientific literature on a 1.5°C increase was extremely limited. It is for this reason that during COP21, this special report, entitled “Global Warming of 1.5°C”, was commissioned from IPCC. The scientific community subsequently started to mobilize to produce the largest possible number of analyses.[...]