2C or Not 2C?
21.11.2011
Cรฉline Guivarch, Stรฉphane Hallegatte
Q5, Q58
Feasibility of 2°C Target, Climate Change Negotiations
Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Carlo Carraro
Political attention has increasingly focused on limiting warming to 2ยฐC. However, to date the only mitigation commitments accompanying this target are the so-called Copenhagen pledges, and these pledges appear to be inconsistent with the 2ยฐC objective. Diverging opinions on whether this inconsistency can or should be resolved have been expressed. This paper clarifies the alternative assumptions underlying these diverging view points and explicits their implications. It first gives simple visualizations of the challenge posed by the 2ยฐC target. It then proposes a โdecision treeโ, linking different beliefs on climate change, the achievability of different policies, and current international policy dynamics to various options to move forward on climate change.