360Nearly every nation agrees the Paris climate agreement
On 12 December 2015, at the COP21 climate conference near Paris, 196 parties agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to try to keep it to 1.5°C. Each country sets its own plan to cut emissions and updates it every five years. The agreement came into force in November 2016.
Earlier climate treaties had set binding targets for only some richer countries, and many large emitters were not covered.
The Paris Agreement took a different approach. Every country would make its own pledge, called a nationally determined contribution, and report on progress, with plans meant to become more ambitious over time.
After two weeks of negotiations at Le Bourget, near Paris, the conference president, the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, brought down his gavel on 12 December 2015 to cheers.
The agreement came into force on 4 November 2016. Countries review progress every five years in a 'global stocktake'. The UN's COP31 climate conference meets in Antalya, Türkiye, in November 2026.
- 1992
- The UN climate convention is agreed
- 12 December 2015
- The Paris Agreement is adopted
- 4 November 2016
- It comes into force
- 2023
- The first global stocktake
Sources: UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) · Britannica.