The deadline for the UN Climate Change summit in Paris is Friday, with the stated goal of keeping global warming under 2° Celsius. Today, John Kerry says they might do better than that. While the Secretary of State acknowledged that the announced targets will make a "major dent" in global emissions, he cautioned that "they will not hold the warming to…what scientists tell us we need to avoid the worst impacts. Or 1.5, whatever, we need to go as low as we can, as many people in this hall are demanding."
That sounds like an insignificant difference, but it’s not -- especially for the world’s poorest, most vulnerable nations, as we hear from Mark Hertsgaard, who is covering the talks for The Nation.