New research highlights the “incredible challenge” of reaching the Paris Agreement without intense action and details the extreme temperatures parts of the planet will suffer if countries fail to reduce emissions.
The world reached an agreement in December 2015 on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of avoiding a 2-degree Celsius increase in average global temperature above pre-industrial levels. Ideally, the treaty’s goal is to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The United States delivered notice to the United Nations in August 2018 of the country’s intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, joining Syria as one of only two countries in the world not party to the treaty.
Two new studies published in the AGU journals Geophysical Research Letters and Earth’s Future now show some of the goals set forth in the agreement might be difficult to reach without much sacrifice.
Read more at American Geophysical Union