In 2015 governments adopted the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change (see below) and invited the IPCC to prepare a special report in 2018 to assess the impacts and related pathways of warming of 1.5ºC. This brief provides context and explanation of key concepts for policymakers, media and others about the Special Report on 1.5°C, scheduled to be published, subject to approval, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. This brief is produced prior to the release of the report and therefore does not contain results from the report itself.