ABSTRACT
The formal adoption of a global temperature target to drive, or at least guide, climate policy development dates back to the mid-1990s. The origins and history of the ‘two degrees’ target and how it was adopted by the EU Council in 1996 – and re-affirmed in 2007 – has been well told in articles by Tol (2007) and Randalls (2010). In recent years the two degrees target has gained in visibility, both in public discourse and in policy deliberations. For example, it underpins the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act and was commended by the G8 meeting at L’Aquila in July 2009. It was also given prominence in the Copenhagen Accord which emerged from the UNFCCC meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen.
