Are In. Will They Fix Anything?
The Climate Change Pledges
- Nearly 200 countries will meet in Paris in early December to work on the global agreement addressing climate change. By 2025, the United States has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent from 2005 levels.
- Other developed countries, including Japan and the European Union bloc, have also promised reductions.
- China has pledged that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2030.
- Other developing countries could become the biggest source of emissions growth.
- Taken together, the pledges are the biggest cut ever achieved, but are still not enough.
- Without the pledges, global temperatures would likely jump more than 8ºF by 2100.
- The Paris pledges lower the likely increase to just over 6ºF.
- But the goal countries agreed to in 2010 was to limit the temperature increase to 3.6ºF.
- Right now, most of the pledges do not extend past 2030.
- Delegates in Paris will discuss a plan for ratcheting up national commitments over time.
