Paris Climate Agreement Reaches 10-Year Mark - Is it Working?

The Paris Climate Agreement celebrated its tenth anniversary recently. But is there reason to celebrate? Here is a look at what climatologists are saying about the 10-year anniversary of this historic agreement and the progress that has been made since.

Commemorating the 10-Year Anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement

This year marks a decade since nations from all over the world came together to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. The agreement detailed a pledge to limit global warming in an effort to protect the planet for generations to come. Although there has been some progress made toward reaching those goals, the most recent climate reports signal that we have a long way to go.

One of the most concerning reports details that the planet is on pace to warm up by 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. This temperature change is well over the 2.7 degrees originally targeted by the climate agreement.

While a difference of just a degree or two may not seem like a big deal, it is important to remember how these incremental changes compound over time. Climatologists report that any warming greater than two degrees would substantially raise the threat of more frequent extreme weather events. These events include heavy rainfall, long-term droughts, heat waves, supercharged tropical weather, and wildfires.

Warming of just a few degrees also increases the risk of catastrophic tipping points. Some of the most feared tipping points include massive ice sheet loss from glaciers, the die-off of the ocean's coral reefs, and the collapse of ocean circulation systems. Temperatures around the globe have trended upward since the pre-industrial era. The most recent data demonstrates that these global temperatures have increased by about 2.3 degrees since that time.

The primary goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is to reduce the gap between the forecast warming and the target. The agreement set a metric of the projections holding steady for multiple years in a row to demonstrate that progress is being made.

The project was deemed to be a success during the first five years of the agreement. In 2015, when the agreement was signed, the projected warming for Earth by the end of the century was forecast to be 3.6 degrees Celsius. That projection had fallen to 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2020. However, only 0.3 degrees Celsius of improvement has been observed since 2020, signaling that the progress has stalled.