Would meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals still leave the world facing serious environmental consequences?
The Paris Agreement, an international climate treaty adopted in 2015, aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep the human-caused global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. However, even this limited warming will still cause significant environmental damage.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a 1.5 degree average temperature increase will lead to more droughts, heat waves, severe storms, habitat destruction and rising sea levels. Humans will more often suffer from food insecurity and water scarcity.
The report emphasizes that all of these impacts will be worse at 2 degrees of warming.
According to the IPCC, “global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.”
