Paris Agreement to come into force as Earth's atmosphere passes 400ppm CO2 threshold
Wed 05 October 2016
View all news
The Paris Agreement, negotiated by more than 200 countries to cap emissions and curb the global rise in temperatures, will come into force on November 4 following an announcement from the United Nations that the treaty has reached the threshold necessary to formally take effect.
The deal aims to ensure that average global temperatures do not rise more than two degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels through individually crafted national emissions limits. While the pact does not include a legal requriement for countries to curb emissions or take other steps on climate change, it does require them to release their targets and report emissions.
Seventy-three of 197 parties to the convention had ratified the Agreement (at the time of writing), including the U.S. and China, the two largest greenhouse gas emitters. Russia, Japan and Australia have, however, yet to ratify the treaty. However, the ratification requirement of 55 countries and 55% of global emissions has been met.
The Agreement is ratified as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reports that carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere passed 400 parts per million (ppm) on average in 2015 for the first time, leading scientists to declare that the world is in a new era of “climate change reality”.
The 400ppm figure published in the WMO's annual greenhouse gas bulletin, has been described as a symbolic threshold that is not expected to fall for generations. The longest established greenhouse gas monitoring station in the world, in Mauna Loa in Hawaii, predicts CO² concentrations will stay above the symbolic 400ppm for the whole of 2016 and reach new highs.
The growth spurt in CO2 levels, which saw a bigger-than-average increase in the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere between 2014 and 2015, was fuelled by the El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific. The strong El Nino, which started in 2015 and continued into this year, triggered droughts in tropical regions and reduced the ability of forests, vegetation and oceans to absorb CO2, leaving more in the atmosphere.
Related Links
< Back to news list