Emissions are still rising. That doesn’t mean we’re failing

WHEN 196 nations adopted the momentous Paris climate accord, the UK prime minister at the time, David Cameron, wrote on Twitter: “Our grandchildren will see we did our duty.”

Ten years later, what would those grandchildren think? Because the Paris Agreement has started to look like a failure. But that only holds true if you’re fixated on the end goal rather than the journey.

The legally binding treaty aims to limit climate change to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts to keep the increase close to 1.5 deg C. It also specifies that countries should reach a “global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions” as soon as possible.