Climate Change: What is the carbon budget?

Global average temperature rise should not exceed 1.5°C if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided, says IPCC. To meet this goal, IPCC has set a limit on how much carbon the world can emit in the future. This limit is called the carbon budget or the emissions budget. In 2014, the IPCC had estimated that the carbon budget was 2,900 Gigatonnes (GT). This carbon budget was from pre-industrial times to the end of the 21st century.