Climate change is one of the biggest crises the planet faces. The issue affects the environment through rising sea levels, droughts, and increasing temperatures; it also impacts sectors like health, transportation, energy, and agriculture.
To combat the crisis, a collective effort by governments around the world is essential. The Paris Agreement represents a landmark climate policy agreement to ensure that nations can combat climate change and adapt to its impact.
What is the Paris Agreement?
In a nutshell, it is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 195 member countries at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris on December 12, 2015. The agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016.
As of now, only Libya, Yemen and Iran have not formally approved the Paris Agreement. The US signed the treaty in 2016. It left the agreement during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Under former President Joe Biden, the US rejoined the agreement. Trump signed an order to withdraw the United States from the treaty again in 2025.
The main goal of the Paris Agreement is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” while making efforts to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in order to significantly lower the impacts and risks associated with climate change.
It also aimed at providing financing to developing countries to mitigate the impact of climate change, and enhance resilience to adapt to its effects. The treaty advocates periodic assessments to gauge how the goals stated in the Paris Agreement have been achieved.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had advocated for keeping the global average temperature rise under 1.5°C, stating that a higher threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts. According to the UN’s Emissions Gap report in 2025, due to slow action by countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the world would exceed the core temperature targets mentioned in the Paris Agreement, at least temporarily.
Why is the Paris Agreement important?
The treaty brought together political leaders from across the world, highlighting the severity of the climate crisis. Countries recognized the need for an effective and progressive response to climate change. The agreement also acknowledged the idea that countries have differing capabilities and responsibilities when it comes to combating climate change.
This agreement has drawn focus towards the concept of net-zero, which means reducing greenhouse gas emissions to ensure that any ongoing emissions are balanced by removals.
Global commitments- NDCs explained
A cornerstone of the Paris Agreement was the idea of periodic climate action plans or nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by countries. NDCS are basically targets on emissions cuts and how they can be achieved. Each government offers the emissions reduction that it believes are feasible.
The Paris Agreement has a “ratchet” mechanism. Every five years, countries need to put forward fresh commitments to bring emissions in accordance with the overall temperature targets. Each successive NDC must reflect a higher degree of ambition than the previous submission.
Countries were supposed to submit new pledges ahead of COP30, but fewer than 90 had done so before the start of the conference.
COP30 announcements: How do they stack up against Paris Agreement commitments?
The COP30 was held in Brazil earlier this year. Coming on the heels of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the event was expected to set the agenda for more ambitious climate action. The summit built upon previous COPs to call for a trebling of funds by 2035 for helping the worst affected nations adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched COP30 by calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a pledge taken two years earlier to move away from fossil fuels. However, the initiative did not move forward, and the matter ended with no binding agreements. Instead, the COP30 presidency put forward a voluntary plan that countries could sign. The final outcome of the summit made no reference to “fossil fuels”.
The Paris Agreement 10 years later
The treaty represented a landmark agreement in climate policy. It united nations in viewing climate change as a threat to humanity and laid out a roadmap to minimize its impact on humanity. A decade since it was signed, the Paris Agreement has led to a surge in renewable energy adoption, declining cost of low-carbon technologies and wider adoption of net-zero pledges and climate policies.
However, challenges remain when it comes to providing finance and technology transfer for low-carbon technologies to developing nations. Global temperatures are still rising, extreme weather events intensifying and fossil fuel usage remains high. The Paris Agreement started an unprecedented level of global cooperation in climate policy, but more needs to be done to progress on its ultimate goal.