The IPCC’s latest report, and the commitments enshrined in the Paris Agreement have reshaped the climate change agenda. Whilst the former establishes carbon budgets as the appropriate scientific foundation for mitigation policy, the latter obligates the international community ‘to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C’. This ambitious agenda demands rates of mitigation far beyond anything evident in history and seldom countenanced by policy makers. Set against such a profound challenge, the presentation will interpret the opportunities and barriers for urgently accelerating the transition to a decarbonised future and consider the scale of impacts should we continue to choose procrastination over meaningful action.