Emissions are still rising. That doesn’t mean we’re failing
The Paris Agreement has put us in a far better position than we would have been without it
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.
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