The Magical Point of 1.5 °C: Is it still achievable?

There is no doubt that climate change is the biggest existential crisis humanity has ever faced and the impacts of it can be felt all across the globe on the food system, health, ecosystem, etc. Climate anxiety is what defines my generation of peoples, Gen Z. The biggest worry of young peoples like me is not about having been not in a relationship because these things don’t really matters when you think about the impacts of climate crisis on the peoples who contributed less to the climate crisis while those who contributed the most are living in the big castles, building profit day by day without worrying about what peoples are actually going through on the ground. And when the time for action comes or to be more clear when the time for the climate talks comes, these same peoples start to pretend like they care so much about the climate crisis by becoming the sponsors. And on the same day they are making billions, extracting oil and polluting the ecosystem with their “accidentally-caused oil spill”.

In 2015, the world leaders signed the historical Paris Climate Agreement which aims to limit the climate crisis to 1.5°C. However, our carbon emissions shows no sign of decreasing. The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) summaries the impacts of climate change at the world of 1.5 °C Vs 2 °C. 

Limiting warming to 1.5 °C

The SR15 summary states, “to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, CO2 emissions must decline by 45% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050”. At 1.5 degrees we will still face large-scale drought, loss of ecosystem , water scarcity, food hunger, and so much more. To be more precise, 1.5 is a safer point than a 2 degrees hotter world where the consequences will be much worse than 1.5 mark. Effects will be more drastic in the arid regions like Middle-East and Sahel , where water which is still remaining at 1.5 will dry up if the world hit the point of 2 degrees. At 1.5, around 70-90% of Coral Reefs will be under risk from bleaching while at 2 degrees the risk is up to 99%.

Is 1.5°C still possible?

The current climate goals of countries are not in line with the Paris agreement and a rise to 3.1 to 3.5 °C is still expected by the year 2100. So it is not possible to avoid what is yet to come. However, technically holding this rise to 1.5 °C will help to avoid the worst impacts of 2 degrees Celsius hot world. To achieve this target the global emissions needs to be cut by 45% and a transition to renewable energy is needed. In reality, we are far from that path and the world will likely pass the point of 1.5 in the next 10-15 years. Even our current level of 1.1 degrees is taking so many lives, homes, ecosystems and the impact of a world hotter than 1.5 is beyond imagination about what the upcoming and my generation is going to face all because of decade of inaction. It is all happening when the best-available science is telling us to reduce the emissions as fast as we can but the major countries who are behind the climate crisis shows no sign of decline in the fossil fuel projects they are giving a green flag to. The definition of “possible” depends on the world leaders that how they define it. If they they think pushing us into a hell of a world hotter than 1.5 is what their “possible climate targets” means, to help out the fossil fuel industry by ignoring the latest available climate science so that they could boost their economies.