What is global warming?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that if we fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the floods and fires we have seen around the world in the last couple of years will get more frequent and more fierce. Crops will be more likely to fail and sea levels will rise, driving mass migration as millions are forced from their homes around the world.

Above 1.5°C we risk reaching climatic tipping points like the melting of arctic permafrost – releasing millennia of stored greenhouse gases – meaning we could lose control of our climate for good.

The science could not be clearer: by the middle of this century the world has to reduce emissions to as close to zero as possible, with the small amount of remaining emissions absorbed through natural carbon sinks like forests, and new technologies like carbon capture. If we can achieve this, global emissions of greenhouse gases will be Net Zero by 2050.