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The world is whiffing on its biggest climate goal

So where, exactly, does the climate fight go next?

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

For more than a decade, 1.5 degrees Celsius has been the watchword — er, watch temperature? — of climate policy. If the world could hold warming at that level, it could stave off some of climate change’s worst effects, researchers believed.

Well…there’s bad news on that front. A major new assessment from the United Nations concludes the world will inevitably pass the 1.5-degree benchmark within the next few years, barring some celestial intervention. Under current policies, we’re on track to hit 2.6 degrees of warming between now and 2100. And while that’s not quite a Mad Max scenario, it will very much change how humans live. (More on that in just a minute!)

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