The Paris Agreement Explained

What on Earth is the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Agreement - now this is a big one.

The Paris Agreement is a huge international agreement on climate change that was signed back in 2015 by 195 countries.

What are the aims of the Paris Agreement?

The overarching goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global heating so that the worst effects of climate change are avoided. Specifically, the upper aim of the agreement is to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius and, ideally, limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Limiting global heating to this level will limit the major effects of climate change - think of all the really nasty stuff like rising sea levels, extreme weather, mass displacement of people, extinction of species, and much more.

Is the Paris Agreement working?

Now, generally, the Paris Agreement is a big deal, which is why it gets all the impressive adjectives like “landmark”, “historic”, “groundbreaking”...

But, the Paris Agreement is only going to live up to its expectations if countries actually stick to it... and early evidence of this is not great.