We are not giving up on a 2 degrees warmer world, says UN climate chief

Speaking at a press event in London ahead of next month’s crucial climate talks in Paris, Christiana Figueres claimed that individual agreements were already in place that would restrict warming to 3 deg C if fully implemented. It is widely accepted among the scientific community that a 2 deg C temperature shift is the limit the planet can tolerate if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided.

“There’s nobody out there that wants a 3 degree world,” said Figueres. “Nobody.”

“We are not giving up on a 2 degree world. In fact, we’re staying under 2 degrees. And what we’re doing is we are building a process that is going to get us there.”

After the debacle of the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, significant progress has been made in expanding renewables globally and taking important steps towards decarbonisation. The shale gas revolution in the US has decreased demand for coal there, and Figueres says China’s coal use is estimated to peak around 2020.