![]() ![]() Governments set targets, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), with the goals of preventing the global average temperature from rising 2☌ (3.6☏) above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to keep it below 1.5☌ (2.7☏). The most significant global climate agreement to date, the Paris Agreement requires all countries to set emissions-reduction pledges. The United States signed the agreement in 1998 but never ratified it and later withdrew its signature. But the treaty did not compel developing countries, including major carbon emitters China and India, to take action. It required developed countries to reduce emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels, and established a system to monitor countries’ progress. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, was the first legally binding climate treaty. These meetings produced the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. It established an annual forum, known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP, for international discussions aimed at stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Ratified by 197 countries, including the United States, the landmark accord was the first global treaty to explicitly address climate change. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 1992. In 2016, parties agreed via the Kigali Amendment to also reduce their production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The protocol has succeeded in eliminating nearly 99 percent of these ozone-depleting substances. Every country in the world eventually ratified the treaty, which required them to stop producing substances that damage the ozone layer, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). ![]() Though not intended to tackle climate change, the Montreal Protocol was a historic environmental accord that became a model for future diplomacy on the issue. What are the most important international agreements on climate change? Still, experts say the current pledges are not enough to prevent catastrophic warming or adapt to its consequences. At the end of the 2021 gathering, countries said they would come to the next year’s conference, COP27 in Egypt, with even more ambition. Since the Paris accord was signed in 2015, many countries have strengthened their climate commitments during the annual UN climate conferences known as COPs. Scientists warn that if this warming continues unabated, it could bring environmental catastrophe to much of the world, including staggering sea-level rise, record-breaking droughts and floods, and widespread species loss. Through the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere keeps rising, heating the Earth at an alarming rate. What the 2022 Midterm Elections Mean for U.S. ![]()
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