Which climate target should we aim for?

[Simon]

Our politicians say it's only possible (and more than enough) if we try and stop global warming from rising further than 2 degrees in global temperatures. A 2ºC increase in global temperatures will mean that we have to stabilize our greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at about 445 to 490 ppm (parts per million) CO2-equivalents.

Environmental organizations and some well-known climate scientists, such as Dr James Hansen, rather want to see the world aiming for only 350 ppm. You can read more about the science behind the 350 ppm target here.

And then we have others, mainly scientists but also more and more environmental organizations, who think the safest way would be to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions down to 300 ppm. You can learn more about the 300 ppm target here.

It's worth noting that at the moment we are hovering at around 391-392 ppm and that number is rising.

Which climate target should we aim for? Which is the "safe" goal? What do you think?

[Estefani]

I think that every region should do research on what their natural weather is or what it was years ago before all this started and try to find ways to maintain that.

[Hakan]

I don't really understand, why is 2 degrees a bad target?