“If global temperatures rise above that level, the places we call home – and many other homes on this planet – will become uninhabitable or even disappear completely”

reduction pledges.

The paper asserting that the 1.5C target is achievable was written by well-respected climate experts and published in a top-ranking journal after extensive peer review. But it is just one paper; there is still a lot more to learn about our capacity to limit global warming. That is why top scientists are already discussing and debating its findings; their responses will also be published in top journals. That is how scientific research works, and it is why we can trust climate science – and its urgent warnings.

Next year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish its own meta-analysis of all of the science related to the 1.5C target, in what promises to be the most comprehensive summary of such research. But we cannot afford to wait for that analysis before taking action.

The members of the CVF have already committed to doing our part, pledging at last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech to complete the transition to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible. Our emissions are already among the world’s smallest, but our climate targets are the world’s most ambitious.

But whether the world manages to curb climate change ultimately will depend on the willingness of the largest current and historical emitters of greenhouse gases to fulfill their moral and ethical responsibility to take strong action. Keeping global temperatures below 1.5C may not yet be a geophysical impossibility. But, to meet the target, we must ensure that it is not treated as a political and economic impossibility, either.