Climate Overshoot

Under the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, more than 190 countries pledged to keep the global temperature less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the average during the preindustrial period of 1850 to 1900. This period was before humans altered the atmosphere and the climate by emitting billions of tons of fossil fuel emissions and other pollutants. The level was chosen because climate models indicated that warming further would greatly intensify extreme weather events, ecosystem losses, and even potential submersion of small island countries.