‘Limit overshoot, peak, decline’: A new global goal for climate change?
The world agreed to limit temperature rises in 2015; that aim is proving impossible. Is it time for a course correction?
The signing of the Paris Agreement by 200 countries in 2015 was a rare moment of global unity, and the euphoria was real.
To cheers and tears, the international climate treaty was approved by nearly every country in the world. Fundamental to the agreement was a commitment to keeping temperatures from rising beyond 1.5C (2.7F) above the pre-industrial levels of the mid 19th-century.
But 11 years on, it is evident that the Earth is soon going to exceed that threshold because of the continued record burning of fossil fuels.
Most notably, the United States has proved entirely inconsistent. Under both presidencies of Donald Trump, it has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement altogether while the Trump administration remains heavily invested in touting US – and now Venezuelan – oil to international consumers.