A temperature goal set by almost 200 governments as the limit for global warming is a poor guide to the planet's health and should be ditched, a study published in the journal Nature said on Wednesday.
The world's environment ministers agreed in 2010 to cap a rise in average surface temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial times as the yardstick to avoid more floods, heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels.
"Politically and scientifically, the 2 degree C goal is wrong-headed," David Victor and Charles Kennel, both professors at the University of California in San Diego, wrote in the Nature article, titled "Ditch the 2C Warming Goal."