Ten Years of the Paris Agreement: The Present and Future of Extreme Heat – publication
16 oktober 2025
In 2015, after years of failed negotiations, the world celebrated a landmark achievement: the signing of the Paris Agreement.
This historic accord set a global goal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. Unlike its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement was ratified by nearly every country in the world, including the largest past and present emitters, establishing a legally binding framework to protect people and ecosystems from the dangers of unmitigated climate change. In the Paris Agreement, countries are allowed to determine for themselves how much they will reduce their emissions, through what are known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and to develop their adaptation plans. Most countries have submitted and updated their NDCs over time, and some emission reductions have been achieved; however, a significant gap remains between current pledges and the emissions cuts required to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C this century. Moreover, many countries are not on track to meet even their current pledges. In the report ‘Ten Years of the Paris Agreement: The Present and Future of Extreme Heat‘, World Weather Attribution analyses heat conditions across past and future warming scenarios to show why the Paris goal of 1.5°C is crucial — and why aiming for the highest possible ambition in the upcoming NDCs, to be discussed at COP30 in Brazil in November, is essential for every country to achieve what the Paris Agreement set out in its preamble: “…taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity”.
In 2015, after years of failed negotiations, the world celebrated a landmark achievement: the signing of the Paris Agreement.
This historic accord set a global goal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. Unlike its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement was ratified by nearly every country in the world, including the largest past and present emitters, establishing a legally binding framework to protect people and ecosystems from the dangers of unmitigated climate change. In the Paris Agreement, countries are allowed to determine for themselves how much they will reduce their emissions, through what are known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and to develop their adaptation plans. Most countries have submitted and updated their NDCs over time, and some emission reductions have been achieved; however, a significant gap remains between current pledges and the emissions cuts required to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C this century. Moreover, many countries are not on track to meet even their current pledges. In the report ‘Ten Years of the Paris Agreement: The Present and Future of Extreme Heat‘, World Weather Attribution analyses heat conditions across past and future warming scenarios to show why the Paris goal of 1.5°C is crucial — and why aiming for the highest possible ambition in the upcoming NDCs, to be discussed at COP30 in Brazil in November, is essential for every country to achieve what the Paris Agreement set out in its preamble: “…taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity”.
Links:
Ten Years of the Paris Agreement: The Present and Future of Extreme Heat
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