The appeal is urgent: “1.5 degrees is a limit, not a goal,” says an appeal from around 200 corporations, companies, organizations and celebrities. Governments must live up to their commitments and act more decisively on climate change.
Corporations such as Amazon, Nestlé, Microsoft and Ikea, together with around 200 companies, organizations and celebrities, have called for global warming to be stopped at 1.5 degrees. “Governments, starting with those of the most developed industrialized countries, must live up to their commitment to meet the 1.5 degree target and implement it more decisively,” says the call, which the signatories presented at the world climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt .
The corporations whose climate-damaging emissions and effects on the environment are causing criticism joined forces with renowned climate researchers such as Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, UN representatives and Mary Robinson, the chair of the organization founded by Nelson Mandela, to support the appeal “The Elders”, teamed up. “1.5 degrees is a limit, not a goal,” it continues. Every tenth of a degree counts. Therefore, every effort must be made to mitigate the impact, cost and suffering that any overstepping entails.
According to climate researchers, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is hanging by a thread. It is theoretically possible, but only through a radical change in climate policy. The international community of states has agreed on the 1.5 degree target in order to avoid exceeding dangerous tipping points with irreversible consequences and to avert the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. The measures planned so far are not ambitious enough for this. According to the United Nations, the earth is currently heading for 2.5 degrees of warming.
At the world climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, representatives from almost 200 countries discuss how the fight against global warming can be stepped up. The conference runs until November 18th.
