What is the Paris Agreement? Trump pulled the US out — again
CNN
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President Donald Trump signed actions on the first day of his second term to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, an international climate change treaty in which nearly 200 countries agreed to work together to limit global warmin
"The stakes couldn’t be higher for the planet and humanity’s ability to adapt to the changing climate and the increasing cost of climate-related disasters.
The planet crossed a consequential threshold in 2024 — 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming — that dates back to the day the Paris Agreement was adopted."
https://www.cnn.com/climate/what-is-the-paris-agreement/index.html#:~:text=The%20stakes%20couldn%E2%80%99t,Agreement%20was%20adopted.
What is the Paris Agreement?
In 2015, more than 190 countries gathered at a United Nations climate summit in Paris and approved what became known as the Paris Agreement, or the Paris Climate Accord, to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, but preferably to 1.5 degrees.
Consensus was split between countries on whether to make the goal 1.5 or 2 degrees. The lower threshold was the one urged by climate scientists, and was ultimately added to the text as an ideal rather than the agreement’s formal goal.
But since then, climate change has accelerated and the planet is warming at a pace even scientists didn’t predict. Evidence has grown in recent years that nature and humanity’s ability to adapt to global warming will drop significantly if the planet experiences sustained warming above 1.5 degrees.
Although the adoption of the Paris Agreement was a landmark moment and set the world on a path that scientists supported, it didn’t get specific about how countries should achieve its goals. The agreement is non-binding; countries aren’t obligated to reduce their climate pollution under international law. Countries set their own pollution goals and methods to meet them.
What is (was) the US climate goal?
The Biden administration submitted a new, ambitious goal on behalf of the US in December 2024 that said the country would cut climate pollution by up to 66% below 2005 levels by 2035.