Can we keep temperatures from rising?
Many countries were frustrated that nations at this year’s summit didn’t include stronger language to get countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This, they said, puts the world on track to blow past the Paris Agreement goal from 2015 to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius – 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit – above pre-industrial levels. That 1.5-degree target is expected to be overshot, although not by as much as in the past. The International Energy Agency says that if the commitments made in Egypt are fully implemented, warming can be limited to 1.7 degrees. That’s down from previous forecasts of “well over 2 degrees” and is “something we can be proud of, even if we recognize we are just getting started,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said in his closing statement. Staying at these levels requires countries to actually do what they have pledged to do. Allowing temperatures to go higher would create “an unlivable world,” says U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres