It was a frank recognition that the 2C goal the climate diplomats were endlessly talking about though not pursuing was insufficient to deal with the increasingly clear realities of climate science.
Instead of talking about 2050, scientists made it clear we'd have to cut emissions in half by 2030 to have a chance of meeting the new goal. All of a sudden companies and countries were being forced to at least articulate 1.5-compliant goals: nothing has turned up the dial on climate action like this number.
The pandemic came at just the wrong moment, knocking the climate movement out of the streets and giving the fossil-fuel industry time to recover its footing; leadership of critical states during what you could call the Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro and Modi years killed some of the Paris momentum; and only now are we beginning to install solar, wind and batteries at anything like the required pace.
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