landmark climate deal struck in paris
naturepl.com / Steven Kazlowski / WWF-Canon
After weeks of negotiations, 196 nations approved a landmark global plan to curb climate change in the years to come. By its design, the Paris Agreement creates the opportunity for nations to continuously strengthen their climate actions over time. Stronger commitments in the near term will be necessary if we hope to make possible the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement: to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius or even 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“This is a pivotal moment where nations stepped across political fault lines to collectively face down climate change,” said Lou Leonard, WWF’s vice president leading our climate change work. “The agreement hammered out over the last weeks in Paris creates a blueprint for progressively bolder action with regular moments where nations come back to the table to do more. The first of these moments is in 2018 when the national targets offered by countries this year will be strengthened.”