Nearly 200 countries have adopted the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But almost 10 years after the agreement, the world still has a lot of work to do to reach that goal.
Climate Action Tracker is an independent scientific project that measures the world’s climate progress.
According to their analysis, current climate policies will lead to about 2.7 degrees of global warming by the end of the century, well exceeding the Paris target.
de Villafranca: “That scenario counts where the world would go … if there’s not additional policies or measures put into place.”
Maria de Villafranca of the New Climate Institute, one of the groups behind the project, says many countries have announced ambitious climate goals that go beyond existing policies.
But the tracker finds that even if all those goals were achieved, the world would still warm by about 1.8 degrees.
de Villafranca: “So it’s closer to the 1.5 Paris Agreement goal, but not yet there.”
De Villafranca says this underscores the need for more ambitious climate action. But she’s encouraged by the rapid growth of clean energy and electric cars.
de Villafranca: “So there’s a lot of really positive things happening … and that really makes me optimistic that we can do this.”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
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