{"id":172193,"date":"2025-11-09T23:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172193\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T23:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:12:15","slug":"in-10-years-since-paris-climate-agreement-progress-on-warming-but-not-nearly-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172193\/","title":{"rendered":"In 10 years since Paris climate agreement, progress on warming but not nearly enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

BELEM, Brazil (AP) \u2014 The world has changed dramatically in the decade since leaders celebrated a historic climate agreement in Paris<\/a> a decade ago, but not quite in ways they expected or wanted. <\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s warming climate<\/a> has gotten nastier<\/a> faster than society has been able to wean itself from burning the coal, oil and natural gas<\/a> that emits carbon pollution that triggers global warming<\/a>, several scientists and officials said. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s been progress \u2014 more than a degree Celsius<\/a> (2 degrees Fahrenheit) has been shaved off future warming projections since 2015 \u2014 but the lack of enough of it will be a big focus for the next two weeks as diplomats gather in Belem, Brazil, for annual United Nations climate negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we\u2019re honest with the world and we declare failure,\u201d said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany. He said warming\u2019s harms are happening faster and more severely than scientists predicted.<\/p>\n

But diplomats aren\u2019t giving up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually in the direction that we established in Paris at a speed that none of us could have predicted,\u201d said former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, who helped shepherd that agreement<\/a>, which requires countries to come up with plans to fight warming.<\/p>\n

But the speed of humanity\u2019s climate-fighting effort is slower than the acceleration of climate\u2019s harms, she said, adding that means that \u201cthe gap between the progress that we see on the ground and where we ought to be, that gap is still there and widening.\u201d <\/p>\n

U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said that the world is \u201cobviously falling behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sort of sawing the branch on which we are sitting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Danger signs<\/p>\n

The planet\u2019s annual temperature jumped about 0.46 degrees Celsius (0.83 degrees Fahrenheit) since 2015, one of the biggest 10-year temperature hikes on record<\/a>, according to data from the European climate service Copernicus. This year will be either the second or third hottest on record, Copernicus calculated. Each year since 2015 has been hotter than the year of the Paris climate deal. <\/p>\n

Deadly heat waves have struck not just traditional hot spots like India<\/a> and the Middle East<\/a>, but even in more temperate places such as the Pacific Northwest in North America<\/a> and Russia\u2019s Siberia<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Earth has been hit repeatedly with more costly, dangerous and extreme weather. The decade since 2015 has seen the most Category 5 Atlantic<\/a> hurricanes and the most billion-dollar weather disasters in the United States, according to records kept by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. America has been hit by 193 disasters that cost at least $1 billion<\/a> in the past 10 years for a total bill of $1.5 trillion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/p>\n

Grace Chyuwei pours water on Joe Chyuwei to help with the heat Aug. 3, 2025, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo\/John Locher, File)<\/p>\n

Grace Chyuwei pours water on Joe Chyuwei to help with the heat Aug. 3, 2025, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo\/John Locher, File)<\/p>\n

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Wildfires<\/a> have consumed parts of Hawaii<\/a>, California<\/a>, Europe<\/a> and Australia<\/a>. Floods<\/a> have devastated parts of Pakistan,<\/a>China<\/a> and the American South<\/a>. And many of those, but not all, have had the fingerprints of human-caused climate change<\/a>, scientists have calculated.<\/p>\n

Since 2015, more than 7 trillion tons of ice in the world\u2019s glaciers<\/a> and ice sheets in Greenland<\/a> and Antarctica<\/a> have disappeared,<\/a> ice scientists calculate. That\u2019s the equivalent of more than 19 million Empire State Buildings.<\/p>\n

Sea level rise is accelerating<\/a>. In the past decade, the world\u2019s seas have gone up 40 millimeters (1.6 inches). It may not sound like much, but it\u2019s enough water to fill 30 lakes the size of Lake Erie, according to Steve Nerem, a University of Colorado professor who researches sea level rise.<\/p>\n

Even the Amazon, where the climate negotiations will convene, has gone from a planet-saving region that sucks heat-trapping gases<\/a> out of the air to a region that, because of deforestation, at times is spewing them.<\/p>\n

Success in bending the curve<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also a lot that officials celebrate in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

Renewable energy is now cheaper in most places than polluting coal, oil and natural gas. Last year, 74% of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar and other green choices, according to two July U.N. reports<\/a>. In 2015, a half-million electric vehicles<\/a> were sold globally, and last year it was 17 million, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no stopping it,\u201d said former U.S. Special Climate Envoy Todd Stern, who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. \u201cYou cannot hold back the tides.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, U.N. projections figured that Earth was on path for almost 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since the mid-1800s. Now, the world is on track to warm 2.8 degrees (5 degrees Fahrenheit), maybe a little less if countries do as they promise.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s nowhere near the goal of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius<\/a> (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a level that scientific reports<\/a> say is more or less the danger line and which became the Paris Agreement\u2019s overarching goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago we had a more orderly pathway for staying away from 1.5 degrees C entirely,\u201d Rockstrom said. \u201cNow we are 10 years later. We have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A floating solar farm operates at the Billings Reservoir in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Andre Penner)<\/p>\n

A floating solar farm operates at the Billings Reservoir in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Andre Penner)<\/p>\n

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A report examining dozens of indicators<\/a> of progress \u2014 such as solar and wind power installations \u2014 in transitioning from a fossil fuel economy found that none were on pace for keeping warming at or below the 1.5 degree goal. <\/p>\n

The report by the Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Analytics, the Climate High-Level Champions, ClimateWorks Foundation and World Resources Institute found that 35 of them are at least going in the right direction, although far too slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnologies, once hypothetical, are now becoming a reality. And the good news is that reality has outpaced many of the projections a decade ago,\u201d said report author Kelly Levin, science and data chief at the Bezos Earth Fund. \u201cBut it\u2019s not nearly fast enough for what\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pollution keeps growing<\/p>\n

Methane levels in the atmosphere increased 5.2%<\/a> from 2015 to 2024, while carbon dioxide levels jumped 5.8%<\/a> in the same time, according to NOAA data.<\/p>\n

Several developing countries, including the United States and the rest of the developed world, have reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by about 7% since 2015, but other countries have seen their emissions soar, with China\u2019s going up 15.5% and India\u2019s soaring 26.7%, according to data from the Global Carbon Project<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Rockport Power Plant operates near a group of mobile homes April 11, 2025, in Rockport, Ind. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel, File)<\/p>\n

The Rockport Power Plant operates near a group of mobile homes April 11, 2025, in Rockport, Ind. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Oxfam International looked at global emissions by income level<\/a> and found that the richest 0.1% of people increased their carbon emissions by 3% since 2015. Meanwhile, the poorest 10% of people reduced their emissions by 30%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Paris Agreement itself has underperformed,\u201d said climate negotiations historian Joanna Depledge<\/a> of the University of Cambridge in England. \u201cUnfortunately, it is one of those half-full, half-empty situations where you can\u2019t say it\u2019s failed. But then nor can you say it\u2019s dramatically succeeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELEM, Brazil (AP) \u2014 The world has changed dramatically in the decade since leaders celebrated a historic climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[23912,582,6114,377,79,3898,3477,442,18,45760,440,3334,135,19,17,98274,98273,69322,10734,583,133,4913,384,443,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-172193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-astronomy","10":"tag-atlantic-ocean","11":"tag-brazil","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-climate","14":"tag-climate-and-environment","15":"tag-climate-change","16":"tag-eire","17":"tag-energy-industry","18":"tag-environment","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-ie","22":"tag-ireland","23":"tag-johan-rockstrom","24":"tag-lake-erie","25":"tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration","26":"tag-oceans","27":"tag-planets","28":"tag-science","29":"tag-united-nations","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-weather","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115522276181859989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}