In Paris last year, the world's governments agreed to limit global temperature rises to no more than 2 degrees C and preferably less than 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. Now that agreement has come into force.

Delegates from almost 200 countries will be meeting in Marrakech, Morocco next week to consider their next steps.  A UN review of the pledges to cut carbon emissions received by countries so far has found that they fell short of even keeping future temperature increases below 2C.  In fact the report found that if the pledges were not extended further, increases of 2.9 to 3.4 degrees C would result by the end of the century. 

There is clearly still a long way to go, but the very fact that the Paris agreement has  come into force in less than a year is important.  The last major climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol took eight years to come into force.  What's more, the Paris agreement binds both rich and poor nations to take action to combat climate change.
It is evident that our leaders are becoming more aware of the need for humans as a species to unite and tackle climate change.  The big question now is whether they can agree on emissions cuts that go far enough to really make a difference to climate change.

Related Resources