Why the Paris Climate Treaty Matters in 5 Graphics

Why the Paris Climate Agreement matters in 5 charts

Who Andrea Thompson

Hours after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order — among many such decrees — to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid their worst effects. Earth’s climate

The move comes right after the planet has experienced its own the first year the world average temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, countries agreed to try to limit warming to less than 1.5 degrees C and “well below” two degrees C (3.6 degrees F).

Trump’s executive order — titledPutting America First in International Environmental Agreements”— demands immediate notification of the US withdrawal to the United Nations and says the withdrawal is “effective immediately”. Under the agreement, countries cannot fully withdraw until one year after notification. Trump pulled the US out of the deal in his first term, too departure took effect in November 2020. Former President Joe Biden brought it The US returned to the agreement in February 2021.

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Because of the discrepancy between the timing of Trump’s order and the terms of the agreement, it is unclear what the withdrawal will be. The order, however, calls for an end to US contributions to international climate finance, and it’s clear from this directive and other Trump orders that the new administration wants to undo much of Biden’s work on climate action and push it further. US oil and gas production levels are already rising.

Many climate scientists and advocates have condemned the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and have warned of the serious consequences of not acting on the climate crisis. “This short-sighted movement shows respect for science around the world and for the well-being of people around the world, including Americans, who are losing their homes, livelihoods and families to climate change,” said Director Jonathan Foley. Director of Project Drawdown, a non-profit organization focused on climate solutions, in a recent news release.

Below are five charts that show why the Paris Agreement and its goals are important.

2024 was the year that global temperatures recorded more than 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial times (generally defined as the second half of the 19th century). This indicates how much temperatures have risen as humans have continued to burn fossil fuels, sending greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And it shows how close the world is to breaking the target of the Paris climate agreement. This threshold has not yet been officially passed, as the agreement takes into account the average global temperature over many years. So there is still in time to limit heating as much as possible, if countries and industries act quickly and ambitiously enough.

We are already feeling the sting of climate change due to the heat built up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and this is most clearly visible. extreme heat events. In the US alone, residents have gone from experiencing two heat waves per summer in the 1960s to more than six today, and those heat waves average more than three days rather than four. The heat wave season has also lengthened from 20 days in the 1960s to more than 70 days now.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US, and the threat to public health will grow as global temperatures rise. So every additional warming the world can avoid has a noticeable effect.

Other disasters—hurricanes, floods, and wildfires—are also increasing as a result of climate change. Along with the changes in how people live and build infrastructure, the costs of disasters are constantly increasing and contributing to an insurance crisis.

When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking disaster cost data in the 1980s, a disaster causing at least $1 billion in damage occurred every three months in the US. Now, such a disaster happens every three weeks. And the dollar values ​​of the costs of these events are almost certainly underestimated—political rhetoric often emphasizes how the price of transitioning to cleaner energy is not addressed by the high costs of inaction.

those the costs, and the pain of the disasters they cause, will be borne by today’s younger generations—who will experience far more heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and other destructive and deadly disasters than their parents or grandparents. But the extent to which this risk has increased depends on how much warming societies allow. Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement would significantly reduce the risks.

US participation in international climate negotiations—especially the Paris agreement—has long been crucial, both because it pressures other countries to be more ambitious and the US. He spent “too much” of the world’s carbon budget. Along with other countries that led the Industrial Revolution, the US has amassed great wealth, but has been responsible for more than its fair share of the amount of carbon that humans can emit into the atmosphere and still meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. It remains to be seen how the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will affect the actions and goals of other countries.