Neubauer Collegium: Has the 1.5°C Warming Target Slipped Away? What Is the Shape of the Future?

Never in nearly four decades has interest in climate change been at such a high level. The world has changed hugely during that time, and the anxieties that have driven climate change to the top of the policy agenda have only increased. IPCC’s Special Report on the Global Warming of 1.5°C called for rapid and unprecedented action on climate change to limit temperature increase to dangerous levels. Despite technological innovation, behavioral changes and government pledges, it is now increasingly likely that we will miss the target unless urgent adjustments are made to the present economic and social system. Is it time to accept that limiting global warming to 1.5°C will not happen? What does this mean for the future of the planet: for human settlements, sectors and systems? How will this affect public behavior, and what does this imply for sustainable development?