Political leadership on climate and the 1.5°c limit: A normative framework

Political leadership on climate and the 1.5°c limit: A normative framework Richard Beardsworth, Professor of International Relations and Head of School at POLIS, University of Leeds, walks us through political leadership on climate and the 1.5°C limit and discusses if this limit remains a meaningful normative framework for climate action. In 2015, 196 governments came together at the UN-held international climate meeting COP21 to sign the Paris Agreement. In this non-binding international treaty, almost all governments of the world pledged to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C,” aware that the risk of irreparable damage to life rapidly increased at the 2°C threshold.