Article ID: CBB001221297

History of the 2ºC Climate Target (2010)

unapi

Policymakers, scientists, and social scientists have debated a wide array of responses to the realities and prospects of anthropogenic climate change. The focus of this review is on the 2ºC temperature target, described as the maximum allowable warming to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate. The temperature target has its roots in the ways in which scientists and economists developed heuristics from the 1970s to guide understanding and policy decision making about climate change. It draws from integrated assessment modeling, the `traffic light' system of managing climate risks and a policy response guided as much by considerations of tolerability of different degrees of climate change as by simply reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The European Union (EU) proposed 2ºC as the policy target in 1996, with support from some environmentalists and scientists. It was subsequently listed as the desirable temperature target in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. Yet the figure has a range of critics from scientific experts to economists arguing that the target is infeasible, expensive, and an inappropriate way of framing climate policy. Tracing the historical development of the target helps understand the context it emerged from and its various strengths and weaknesses.

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Authors & Contributors
Oreskes, Naomi
Conway, Erik M.
Weart, Spencer R.
Benjamin W. Goossen
Johnson, Alison F.
Tschinkel, Walter R.
Concepts
Climate and climatology
Global warming
Science and politics
Climate change
Controversies and disputes
Models and modeling in science
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Institutions
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
International Geophysical Year (IGY)
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