Ten years ago, the Paris Agreement entered into force, binding nearly every country to a shared goal: to hold global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C (2.7F).
asserted
Agreement → enter → 1.5C
A decade on, the deal has helped drive stronger climate policies and a rapid expansion of clean energy.
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deal → help → energy
But emissions remain near record highs, temperatures keep climbing and countries are still far from the cuts needed to keep a 1.5C limit within reach.
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countries → remain → reach
In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera looks at what the Paris Agreement set out to do, how far global temperatures have risen since and which countries are driving emissions.
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countries → look → emissions
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding climate treaty adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations climate summit in Paris, also known as COP21, on December 12, 2015.
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Agreement → adopt → December
It entered into force on November 4, 2016.
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It → enter → November
The United States, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, has joined and left the agreement twice.
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States → join → agreement
President Donald Trump ordered both withdrawals.
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Trump → order → withdrawals
The first took effect in November 2020, and President Joe Biden rejoined in February 2021.
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Biden → take → February
The US left again in January this year, 12 months after Trump ordered its exit for a second time.
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Trump → leave → time
Today, 194 parties, 193 countries and the European Union, belong to the agreement.
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parties → belong → agreement
Rather than imposing the same cuts on everyone, the agreement asks each government to set its own targets through nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, outlining how it will cut emissions and adapt to climate change.
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it → impose → change
Countries submit a new, more ambitious NDC every five years, and a Global Stocktake assesses collective progress on the same cycle.
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Stocktake → submit → cycle
The agreement also covers reporting, climate finance and support for developing countries.
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agreement → cover → countries
The agreement does not force countries to meet their targets.
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agreement → force → targets
It relies on transparency and international pressure to raise ambition.
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It → rely → ambition
How close is the world to breaking the 1.5C limit?
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world → break → limit
Temperatures have kept rising since the deal was adopted.
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deal → rise → ?
The past three years, 2023 to 2025, were the hottest on record and the first three-year period to average more than 1.5C of warming.
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years → average → warming
The long-term warming average now stands at about 1.4C, and scientists expect it to surpass 1.5C around the end of this decade.
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it → stand → decade
In October, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the chance of keeping warming to 1.5C without overshooting it has been lost.
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chance → say → it
“Every additional fraction of a degree and additional year of warming above 1.5C increases climate impacts and risks, such as the deadly floods, heatwaves and wildfires that have plagued many nations this year,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said.
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Andersen → increase → nations
When the Paris Agreement was signed, existing policies put the world on course for about 3.6C of warming by 2100.
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policies → sign → 2100
According to the Climate Action Tracker, that projection has since fallen to about 2.6C as countries adopted climate policies and clean energy expanded.
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energy → accord → policies
Progress has stalled since 2021, however, and current policies still point to far more warming than the agreement promised.
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agreement → stall → warming
Which countries emit the most?
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countries → emit → most
Carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming, comes mostly from burning coal, oil and natural gas while deforestation removes trees that once absorbed it.
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that → come → it
China, the US and India now produce more than half of the world’s annual emissions.
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China → produce → emissions
China alone emits more than the US, India, Russia and Japan combined although the US has released the most carbon emissions historically.
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US → emit → emissions
Investments in clean energy are now almost double those in fossil fuels, but emission cuts have been too slow to keep 1.5C within reach.
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cuts → keep → reach
The graphic below ranks the biggest emitters in 2024 and shows how their emissions have changed since the agreement took effect in 2016.
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agreement → rank → 2016
China remains by far the largest polluter, and its emissions have kept rising alongside those of India and Indonesia as these fast-growing economies burn more coal to meet soaring power demand.
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economies → remain → demand
Indonesia has climbed into the top 10, replacing Canada.
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Indonesia → climb → Canada
Germany, Japan and the US have cut their emissions, largely by replacing coal with renewables and gas.
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Germany → cut → renewables
But growth elsewhere has outweighed those cuts, and global emissions are 9 percent higher than in 2016.
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emissions → outweigh → 2016
The Aporia
