Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing unprecedented changes to the climate. In 2015, at the United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties in Paris, France, countries agreed to limit the global mean surface temperature (GMST) increase to 2°C above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. Due to the long-term irreversibility of sea level rise (SLR), risks to island and coastal populations are not well encapsulated by the goal of limiting GMST warming by 2100. This paper reviews and synthesizes the climate justice implications of temperature targets in light of our increasing understanding of the spatially variable impact and long temporal commitment to rising seas. In particular we highlight the impact that SLR will have on island states and the role of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in UN climate negotiations. As a case study we review dual impacts from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) under a changing climate: 1) recent climate and ice sheet modeling shows that Antarctic melt has the potential to cause rapid SLR with a distinct spatial pattern leading to AOSIS nations experiencing SLR at least 11% higher than the global average and up to 33% higher; and 2) future ice sheet melt will result in a negative feedback on GMST, thus delaying temperature rise. When considering these impacts in conjunction, justice concerns associated with the Paris Agreement are exacerbated. This case study demonstrates that mitigation policies should consider climate impacts in addition to GMST, particularly sea level rise.

In 2015, at the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, France, countries agreed to limit the global mean surface temperature (GMST) increase to 2°C above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. However, risks from sea level rise are not well encapsulated by temperature targets. Near term emissions will dictate long term sea level rise responses, but the tendency for policy and negotiations to concentrate on the year 2100 can limit our understanding of intergenerational justice concerns arising from this commitment. Here we present an analysis of the long term spatial variability of sea level rise, and an interdisciplinary review of associated justice considerations from across a wide range of literatures. We center the positioning of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to show that AOSIS nations are disproportionately impacted by sea level rise, and that ice sheet instabilities, which could dominate the long term trend in sea level, are associated with feedbacks which can potentially exacerbate climate justice implications.

The science linking anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions with our changing climate, and the resulting impacts, has been well established for decades. During that time one of the focal points of international negotiations was to establish a common target for action to address climate change. These negotiations culminated in the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015 which seeks to limit the global mean surface temperature (GMST) rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C. Our research seeks to assess the climate justice implications of using global mean surface temperature as a metric for climate action by combining data from ice sheet models and fully coupled global climate model simulations in conjunction with a literature review spanning fields including international relations, political economy, critical geography, and history. Considering the political and scientific history of the development of the temperature target alongside global impacts of climate change we gain a new understanding of spatial, temporal, and procedural aspects of climate justice.

This study investigates how course design for a first year introductory class on climate change impacts student understanding of this global issue. The course was developed to situate the scientific knowledge of climate change alongside the political, economic, and social dimensions of this human-caused crisis. This intentional course development was to give students a more holistic understanding of the causes, impacts, and solutions. The curriculum is widely interdisciplinary with scientific concepts, like the functioning of the climate system and tools of climate system research, taught alongside politics, economics, media analysis, and social justice. A teaching as research project was conducted to assess how adding the sociopolitical context impacted student's ability to situate their knowledge of the scientific basis of climate change using systems thinking. As climate change, and scientific research, operate within the social and political landscape students became more informed citizens through learning these connections. Student participants in the study have a range of backgrounds and were all majors within the college of natural sciences during their first semester of college, though not all majoring in earth sciences